Chambered
by the TREX
Summary: A gunsmith and his friends must face their deepest fears in order to survive the horrors of Raccoon City. Contains lots of guns, some action and a little romance. Rated M for violence and adult themes. 26th chapter is FINALLY up! Please R&R!
1. Son of a Gun

**Disclaimer: Do not own Resident Evil or any other trademark I might mention in this story**

**Summary: Sean and his friends must face their deepest fears in order to survive the horrors of Raccoon City. A long and exhausting battle awaits them, as they will attempt to escape the horrible nightmare.**

**Chambered**

_The cure for writer's cramp is writer's block_

**Inigo DeLeon**

**Chapter 1**

_Son of a Gun_

Wednesday

September 23rd, 1998

_Finally, some much needed vacation! _Sean Hayter thought to himself, as he was driving home.

Sean hated driving on the highways of Raccoon City. There was always a lot of traffic at 3 pm. Even though there were three lanes, the road was packed with cars.

Sean was 20 years old and it had been several years since he'd got his license. But he was still a little edgy, when driving in heavy traffic. But when he finally got off the highway, he started to relax.

_It's gonna be nice with a little off time with my friends._ Sean thought.

He only had a week off, but after working for six months straight, without any vacation, a week seemed like a lot. He had just got off from work, and was heading back home to his house. Well, it wasn't exactly "his" house, but his parents. He was watching over it, while they were on a business trip in Europe. His dad worked for the pharmaceutical company Umbrella. They had sent him to their European department in Paris, and his mom had tagged along. So he had the whole house to himself for an entire week.

Sean yawned. He was kind of tired, even though it was way too early at the day, to be thinking about sleeping. But he was really bored of driving. He turned on the radio.

"_Mass hysteria is what might have caused campers to think they saw a giant moth…"_

He changed the channel.

"_Witnesses claim to have seen dog looking creatures in the forest…"_

He had heard enough of that stuff at work, so he turned it off.

Sean worked at the Raccoon Police Department as a gunsmith. Or a "gun bud" as most of the officers called his profession. He worked along side the finest police officers in town and also the famous Special Tactics And Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S). So he had overheard a lot of conversations about the case. And he also had debated it with a couple of the S.T.A.R.S members and some other co-workers, over the lunch breaks. It was horrible what had happened to that female hiker and the other victims. They said that the body had shown evidence of teeth marks. And that they might have been human.

_Who could do something like that?_ Sean thought.

It really seemed unreal to him that anyone could get them selves to do something so cruel.

Sean tried to focus on something else. He thought of the shooting practice some months ago. Some of the S.T.A.R.S members had been practicing, and Sean had dropped off some new gear for them at the range. He had shown that Chambers girl how to hold her gun correctly, since she was new and still a little inexperienced with the Beretta M9. She tended to stretch her arm to much when shooting. He showed her that she had to bend it a little, in order to absorb the recoil.

Then Barry Burton had asked Sean if he wanted to try a little shooting competition, and he had been thrilled. He thought it was a real honor to compete against a S.T.A.R.S member. They had squeezed off about 10 rounds each, and the final score was unfortunately in favor of Barry. Sean's score had been 98 points and Barry's had been a 100 points. That was the highest score you could get. They had all been really impressed of Sean. And he was really proud to be the one with the second best score at the shooting range.

So Sean really loved his job. Guns were his passion and having that job was his childhood dream. He even helped Joe Kendo, brother to Robert Kendo and one of Barry's close friends, designing and modifying the special Beretta's the Samurai Edge, which S.T.A.R.S was using. But lately he hadn't really gotten the chance to speak with any of them. After their last mission, Chief Irons had given Sean and his co-workers specific orders not to talk to any of the members.

Sean was pretty sure that they knew something they weren't supposed to know. And it had something to do with the rescue mission in the Arklays. And what was worse, was that several of the S.T.A.R.S had died under that mission. Kevin, Joseph, Forest, Richard, Edward, Kenneth, Enrico and even Capt. Wesker. All dead. And why wouldn't Irons let people know what went on out there? Sean was really frustrated about it. Though he wasn't close to any of the diseased, he felt really sorry for the families that had been left behind. They probably hadn't been told how or why their loved ones died. But he couldn't do anything about it, because the Chief would fire him if he as much as looked at any of the remaining S.TA.R.S.

Still… the rumors about them seeing zombies and monsters? That made him question their sanity. But apparently the S.T.A.R.S weren't the only ones who had seen abnormal creatures lately. So maybe there was some truth in those rumors.

Sean drove down the road to his neighborhood. Bergen Street.

"Home sweet home," he mumbled so himself.

The house was in the finer parts of the city, and it was placed together with a series of other similar houses. It was a rather big house, with plenty of parking space. Usually there were about three cars parked here, but now the only car was his own metallic red Honda Civic Hatchback.

He stepped out of his ride, and picked up his cell phone. He called his friends, Mike and Patrick. Nobody answered though, only the machine.

"_Hey it's Mike Barnett. I can't answer the phone right now, due to the fact that I'm not really here, so leave a message. BIIIP"_

"Hey Mike, it's me, Sean. Just wanted to know if you and Pat still were up for movies tomorrow? Call me back when you know, allright?"

He hung up and took his bag from the back of his car. Sean went inside the house, left his shoes in the entrance, and started to undress as he went trough the entire house, leaving his clothes all over the place, as he headed for the shower. But when he entered the living room, there was a surprise waiting for him.

"Jesus Christ, Sabrina! What are you doing here?" Sean shouted shockingly, and tried to cover himself, since he was only wearing boxers.

"Ohh, I'm so sorry. Uhmm, go get dressed and I'll explain afterwards." She said and tried to cover her eyes. Not that she wanted to, because he was kind of attractive, but of pure reflexes.

Sean was an average sized man, a little underweight, but well build. He had short dark ash blond hair, and cute blue green eyes. Of course Sabrina had noticed all those attributes before, but she had never seen him without his shirt and pants on.

Sean left and came back a little later, fully dressed this time.

"So would you be so kind to inform me, what in the hell you're doing here? And how did you get in?" Sean said still a little shocked.

"Ehm, I kinda got evicted from my apartment, and I needed a place to stay, so I called you, but nobody answered, so I walked all the way out here and locked myself in, using the spare key under the doormat." She explained in what seemed like one breath.

There was a seconds silence…

"Look, I'm really sorry, but I was desperate to find a place to stay, and you're the only one I know around here."

Sean felt sorry for her. Sabrina had moved too Raccoon City not too long ago. She used to live with here parents too, but she had to work in downtown, and since she didn't have a car, she had to move closer to her job. She had gotten a job at the animal hospital as an assistant. But it wasn't going so well, because she didn't make a lot of money. Sean guessed that she couldn't pay the rent for the apartment.

"Okay," he sighed and scratched his head. "You can stay here a couple of days, but if my parents find out, they're probably gonna kill me. But they won't be back for another week, so I guess its okay."

"Thank you sooo much." She said and gave him a huge hug. "You're so sweet."

She gave him a kiss on the cheek, and he blushed.

"Well, you're welcome. You can use my parent's bedroom if you want to."

"Okay." And then she started to carry her bags upstairs.

"Here, let me help you with that." He suggested and took one of the bags.

"Thanks. You sure are a gentleman."

"Gotta treat my guest well, right?"

"Right." she said and smiled to him. He smiled back.

Sean and Sabrina had known each other since highschool, and she kind of had a crush on him back then. She was clearly still a little interested in him, but Sean wasn't really sure if he wanted a relationship with her. To him they were only friends. And she knew that, but still she wanted him.

"Can I take a shower?" She asked all of a sudden.

"Ehh, actually…"

"No sorry." She apologized quickly. "You were about to! You go first."

"Well, unless you wanna join me." Sean suggested sarcastically, and grinned.

"You wish." She laughed. "I'll be in the bedroom watching some TV, ok?"

"Ok sure." He said and went to the bathroom.

xxxxxxxxxxx

When Sean got out of the shower, he dried himself up with a towel and wrapped it around his waist. Then he hurried to his room to change his clothes. He didn't want Sabrina to see him partly naked again. That would be way too awkward to go through a second time.

As he was looking for something to wear, he found one of his black RPD t-shirts. He usually wore those at work, but he kind of liked the way it looked together with his dark jeans. He liked dark clothing. It looked good he thought.

When he had suited up, he went to check on Sabrina. She was lying on her side in the bed, facing the other way. So she didn't notice that Sean was checking her out, while he stood in the door. She was busy watching the news, so he saw an opportunity to get a good look at her.

She was actually a quite attractive girl, when he thought about it.

_Long dark, almost black, hair, the right curves, and a nice a… No! How can I think like that? We're just friends…_

_RIIING RIIING_

"Jesus!" he blurted out at the shock of the phone ringing.

_RIING RIING_

He ran to the phone and picked it up.

"Sean here"

"_Hey Sean. It's Mike"_

"Hey Mike. What's up?"

"_I'm just calling to confirm that me and Pat ARE coming tomorrow." Mike said and was expecting a quick answer. "Remember… Movies… Snacks…Maybe some beer_"

"Oh yeah, sorry. Was a little distracted." Sean said, still looking at the beauty in his parent's bedroom. "Sabrina is here."

"_Sabrina? Sabrina Dowell?"_

"Well yeah."

"_Hmm, is there something between you two that I should know about?"_

"Drop it, Mike. We're just friends, all right! "

"_Relax, I'm kiddin, man. But anyways, what is she doing at your place?"_

"Well, she got evicted from her apartment, and I've let her stay over for a couple of days."

"_Ok, cool. Look, I've gotta go. Pat's starting a fire in the kitchen, I think. You know how much he sucks at cooking. We'll talk tomorrow."_

"All right, see ya."

They both hung up.

Sean, Sabrina and Mike had known each other since highschool. Patrick was Mike's older brother. They shared an apartment not too far away from Sean's neighborhood. Sean knew Patrick from work. He was an RPD Officer. So they had spent a lot of time together, talking in the coffee breaks. Pat was a good colleague, a really good person in general. And since Mike was his brother, they had all started to hang out together.

Sean went back to the bedroom.

"Hey, Mike and Pat are coming over tomorrow. We're gonna watch some movies. You can join us if you want to." He suggested.

"Ok, sounds cool. I'm in."

Sean paused when his eyes caught the TV.

"What are you watching?" He asked Sabrina who was still starring at the TV.

"It's the news. It's about all those people who have gone sick lately. They think it's a virus of some sort."

"Okay… Sounds bad."

"_All the people that yet have fallen victim to this mysterious disease have either been bitten or scratched by animals. Some reports of people getting bit by humans too. If there is any connection between those things, are still being investigated. But it is a possibility."_

"That's horrible!" Sabrina said and looked back at Sean who was totally consumed by the broadcast.

"_If you have been bitten or scratched by any animal or suspicious person, you should seek a doctor immediately. First symptoms is said to be itching, dizziness and/or nausea."_

"Hmm, they said people have been bitten by humans… Maybe it has some connection to those cannibal-murders in the Arklays?" Sean wondered. "I hope not…"


	2. Rumors

_That's the secret to life... replace one worry with another..._

**Charles M. Schulz**, _Charlie Brown_  
_US cartoonist (1922 - 2000)_

**Chapter 2**

_Rumors_

Thursday

September 24th, 1998

"_Good morning Raccoon City! I'm Terry Higgins and you're listening to RC FM."_

Sean quickly slammed his hand onto the snooze button. He sat up, and scratched his head. Still trying to focus, he looked at the clock radio. It said 10 am. But he was still pretty beat, even though he had gone early to bed the other night. He was always tired when he had slept too much. He didn't know why though.

Sean fumbled with one of the drawers on his nightstand. When he finally got it open he pulled out something that looked like a pencilhouse. He opened it. Inside were 6 small syringes with labels that said "Insulin". He pulled one out, removed the cap and looked closely at the short needle. Then he stung it in his leg, pressing the clear liquid into his thigh. He could feel the liquid spreading through his veins. Then his muscles suddenly went tense, but after some seconds they relaxed again. It didn't hurt much, but if he didn't use it at least twice a day, depending on his glucose levels, he would start to feel weird.

He was suffering from diabetes mellitus type 1, also known as IDDM, Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus. The only way for him to treat the disease was to take insulin injections, adjust his lifestyle and monitor his blood glucose levels every single day. If he didn't do these things he would go into shock and he might render unconsciousness. If not treated he would most likely die.

He pulled the syringe out of his thigh, put the cap back on and put into a special needle container. It kind of looked like a can, and it had huge letters that spelled "needle disposal". Half asleep he stepped out of his bed, took on some random jeans from the floor and went to the panoramic windows to pull away the curtains. The windows were placed so you could see everything in a 180 degree angle. So from up there he had a really good view of the street. His room was right over the garage. He could also see his car from up there, because it was parked in front of the house and not in the garage.

Outside it was really bright so Sean got blinded when he pulled the curtains aside. With irritated eyes he opened one of the windows to get some fresh air. He then took a really deep breath and then exhaled. He could smell the odor of newly cut grass. That made him smile. He liked that smell. Reminded him of football back in highschool. Right before a big game, they used to cut the grass. But apparently it was just his neighbor that was mowing the lawn. He always did it at this time at the day. Normally that would have annoyed Sean, but he really must have been tired since the noise hadn't awakened him.

Besides, nothing could ruin this gorgeous day, he thought when he came to look at the sky. It was really clear, not a single cloud could be seen. And the sun was shining bright. He could hear birds tweeting too. Sean sighed deeply, turned around and looked at his room, that was now fully lit by the sunlight. It was a fairly sized room, with kind of a fusion of an office,a bedroom and a living room going on.

To the left he had a wooden desk with a green desk lamp, and a lot of papers was scattered around on the desk. In the middle of the room he had a large double bed and a small table on the right side of it. And on right he had his comfortable couch and his trusty 20 inch TV with his VHS.

He also had a really messy sofa table. There were gun parts spread all over it. Before he went to bed last night, he had been passing his time by shining up his favorite gun, his .45 Colt M1911. He also had a 9mm Beretta M9, and a 12 gauge Benelli M3 Super 90 shotgun, but they were in his gunsafe in the back of his closet. He had bought the safe and the guns from the RPD's reserve layer. They had all been replaced by the stations new weaponry about half a year ago.

Now Sean was using them to his own amusement. Occasionally he would go to the gun range, and train his aim. Or sometimes he just sat downand cleaned them for hours. That was a good way to relax, when he was stressed out.

Sean sat down in the couch as he took his RPD t-shirt on, and started to assemble the .45 cal. He took the barrel and placed it inside the slide. Then he took the frame and pulled the slide over it, then all the way back. As he held it there he took the split and placed it so the slide wouldn't fly off, due to the pressure of the spring. After that he screwed the handles on, he took the magazine and shoved it up the gun, and in the same motion he pressed the slide button, so the slide went forward. Then it was ready to be fired.

Click! It sounded as he pulled the trigger.

"Boom." Sean said and smirked.

Of course the gun wasn't loaded. He would never be so careless that he would let a loaded gun lie around. He didn't even keep his ammo together with his guns. He had the bullets and the shells in a safe in the basement of the house. He couldn't risk any accidents. Besides, the basement was really dry, and that was better for the gunpowder. He had his workshop down there too, and he also made his own bullets there.

He went to the closet in the back of his room and opened it. It was big enough to hide the safe and there was still room enough for him to stand in there. He typed in the code, opened it and placed his favorite gun inside. The reason why Sean kept his guns in his room and not in the basement was a little unclear even to himself. He didn't know why, but it made him feel more comfortable. Like some inner peace.

Sean stopped and took a look at his little collection. He took out the Benelli shotgun. The steel felt cold in his hands.

Chik chik! It sounded when he pulled the handguard back and forth.

It was the most powerful gun he owned. That thing could stop a grizzly bear if necessary. It packed quite a punch, and it shouldn't be fired by anyone who weighs less than 120 lbs. The recoil would be too much for such a person. But Sean had a total weight of about 150 lbs, so that wasn't a problem. The kickback was still a lot but he was a strong man. He could handle it.

As Sean was admiring the weapon, something snatched him out of his thoughts. The sound of glass breaking made him run to the door really fast still with the shotgun in his hands. He sled down the stairs, landed on the floor and broke into a runin an instant. As he entered the kitchen he threw himself sideways along the floor and sled halfway into the room until he stopped and saw what had caused the ruckus.

"Oh, good morning." Sabrina said softly. She stood next to the table with a broken glass in her hand. Sean noticed that she was wearing an oversized "I love Raccoon City" t-shirt, that went all the way to the middle of her thighs, and apparently no pants.

"Ahemm, hi." He replied kind of embarrassed.

Sabrina was used to Sean and his guns, so she was calm when seeing the shotgun Sean was pointing at her. Besides she knew it wasn't loaded. Sean would never load a gun outside a gunrange.

"Sorry, thought someone was breaking in." He said and lowered the Benelli.

"No, I just dropped one of the glasses. Sorry to disappoint you, but cool entrance anyway. Do you do that everytime you have guests or..?" She said sarcastically as she put down the other glass she had been holding.

"No, just for you." He said and smiled. She chuckled.

She walked over to him, grabbed his hand and pulled him up on his feet. But she had to pull really hard to make it, so that resulted in both of them colliding. Sabrina hit the wall softly behind her, and Sean fell into her. They both looked up and caught eachothers eyes.

Sabrina could feel his warm breath on her face. He was breathing rather quickly, and she could feel his heart pounding heavily. Sean pushed himself away from her, and looked down.

"Ahemm, sorry 'bout that." He said and looked up at her again.

"No, it was my fault. I'm always so clumsy." Sabrina said and turned away.

There was some seconds silence.

"Here let me help you with that glass." Sean helped. "I'm gonna go get the vacuum cleaner. If you just pick up the biggest shards."

"Allright."

Sean left the kitchen to get the vacuum cleaner.

Sabrina started to look for a newspaper or something she could wrap the remains of the glass in. She stepped in to the living room, and found a basket filled with that weeks newspapers.

While she looked through them she thought of the moment Sean and her had just seconds ago. She had really felt the urge to kiss him, when they stood so close. But she wasn't sure about him feeling the same way, and she didn't want to ruin their friendship. She felt like going crazy. She couldn't decide. Should she stay friends with him and not show her love, or should she risk it all by telling him how she felt. She couldn't just let a guy like Sean pass. Guys like him were really hard to find. He was caring, generous, charming and not to mention handsome. But best of all, he always listened. She could talk to him about anything. But she couldn't tell him this…

"Hey, did you find a newspaper?"

Sabrina turned around and saw Sean standing in the door with a huge vacuum cleaner.

"What? Oh yeah… found one." She smiled and held up a paper.

"Allright, let's _wrap_ it up!" Sean joked and stopped. "Okay, I'm not funny at all today am I?"

"That's okay, it's pretty early. You can still make it." Sabrina said and tapped his shoulder.

xxxxxxxxxxx

At around 6 pm Sean called the local pizza place. He was supposed to get the pizza, and Mike and Pat were supposed to rent the movies and buy snacks and stuff. Sabrina was standing at his side making sure he got her order right.

"Hey Carlos, I like to order four pizzas out of the house. Yep, a nr. 62." Sean ordered and looked at Sabrina who nodded to confirm. "A nr. 59 and two times nr. 65." There was a pause. "Wait a second."

Sean held his hand over the phone.

"Do we want fries?" Sean asked Sabrina and she nodded wildly. "My kind of girl."

She smiled.

"Yes, we want fries with that. Ok, how long? 15 minutes? Ok, thanks." He hung up.

He turned to Sabrina who was rotating a pencil between her fingers.

"Are you coming with me?" He asked.

"Wait, are they not going to deliver the pizza?"

"No, we're gonna go get it, cause I'm not gonna pay 4 dollars for delivery when its only ten minutes walk from here."

"Ok. Let's go then." Sabrina said.

They both went for the door.

"Think we should wear jackets?" She asked as she looked outside.

"Are you kiddin'? It's like a billion degrees outside." Sean said, and made a grimace.

"Yeah, but it looks a little windy. Just look at the trees."

Sean opened the front door to check it out.

"You're right. It is kinda chilly. That's the downside of living outside downtown. No buildings to stop the wind."

He went for his jackets, but Sabrina was way ahead of him and had already fetched it.

"Here you go."

"Thanks." He said and took it. It was a lightbrown suede leathery jacket, with fleece inside and it only went to his waist when he wore it. It gave him that kind of modern cowboy look. And with his jeans it went perfect.

"I knew you would be happy with that jacket." Sabrina said and gave him a sweet smile. She had bought it for him for his birthday a couple of months ago.

"Yeah, I love it. And it draws a lot of attention too." Sean said smiling back. "I'm getting a lot of looks when I'm in downtown."

"Of course you do, you look hot in it." Sabrina said biting her lip. She noticed that Sean blushed when he took it on. Sabrina put on a white sweater instead of a jacket. She had left her jacket in one of her bags, but the sweater had been hanging on the coat hanger. Besides it didn't look that cold, she thought.

"You don't look too bad either." Sean said when he saw it on her.

"Gee, thanks."

"I'm kiddin. You look gorgeous in it."

"Really? You think so?" She said and looked in the mirror in the entrance.

"Yeah." He smiled and nodded.

"Thanks, it means a lot to me that you think so." She said and looked back at him.

They stared at each other for some time.

"Hrrm. We should be going. Th-the pizzas are gettin cold." Sean broke the silence.

They started to walk out the door, Sean first.

_He thinks I'm gorgeous!_ Sabrina thought to herself smiling, as she closed the front door.

Sean locked the door and they went out on the road. There wasn't many hours left before the sun would go down. So the sun was glowing orange from a clear sky.

"It's beautiful." Sabrina whispered to herself and enjoyed the moment.

As they walked they couldn't help noticing that there was unusually quit in the area. And there wasn't a soul on the streets.

"That's odd. There's usually kids' playing on the road at this time." Sean said wondering.

"Maybe they're all eating." Sabrina said and looked at Sean with an apparent expression on her face.

Sean stopped and looked around for a while.

"Yeah, you're probably right." He said and started walking again.

They went off Bergen Street and turned right. Now the pizzaplace was only a 100 yards up the road. They could see it from there.

"Is that the one?" Sabrina asked.

"Yup. José's Pizzaplace."

The lights were on. But there didn't seem to be much going on now. The only person in there was the owner. He was looking up at something. When they got closer they could see it was a TV. Whatever he was watching, had him so hypnotized that he didn't see Sean and Sabrina walking up to the door. They stepped inside.

"Hi José!" Sean said to the man behind the counter. He was an Italian looking guy in his mid-forties, with black hair, with some grey in it, and had a rather big belly. Just like you would picture a typical pizzaguy.

"Oh, hi Sean. Didn't see ya." He answered. "I've got your pizzas right here." He went to the back and came back with four flat pizzaboxes and a small box of fries.

"That'll be 36.99 dollars."

"Here you go." Sean said and placed 40 dollars on the counter. "Keep the change."

"You spoil me Sean." José said and chuckled. "Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome." Sean smiled. "Hey, where's Carlos by the way?"

"He went home to his mama. She's not feeling too well. So I gave him the rest of the day of."

"Allright, fair enough."

José looked at Sabrina who was staring at the TV, from a chair in the other end of the room. She apparently felt the need to sit down.

"Is that your girlfriend?" He whispered to Sean as he leaned over to him.

"No, were just friends."

"Right… And I'm the King of Tunisia." He spoke out loud and broadened his arms.

Sean slapped his arm.

"Okay, I like her, but it's… complicated." Sean wanted to change the subject and so he looked up at the TV. "Sooo, what are we watching?"

José also turned his eyes to the screen. Pictures of hundreds of people waiting at the Raccoon Hospital lobby. Many with scratches and bruises.

"They've been broadcasting news about that virus since 4 pm. It's pretty bad I think. A lot of people have been infected it seems."

"_The Raccoon Hospital in downtown is at moment filled to its maximum capacity. We are advising people who have suspicion of them being infected should try seeking to other hospitals in other parts of the city. Such as Raccoon Memorial…"_

"And it's on all the other channels too." José interrupted and changed the channel.

"_A riot on the Raccoon Shark's Stadium that started moments ago, have caused a massive panic amongst the crowd at todays late Football game…"_

He kept on zapping.

"_We are advising people to stay indoors, because of the "cannibal disease" that is raging as we speak. The disease apparently can make people go angry and violent. So stay inside and lock your doors. Don't try to make contact with any of these enraged individuals. The police are already being dispatched in Downtown, that's seems to be the worst affected area."_

Again he zapped.

"_So what are you suggesting people should do, Chief Irons?"_

"_Well, we don't want any vigilantes, so I'm suggesting that people should stay in they're homes and let us, the police, do our jobs. We have the situation under total control."_

"_That was what Brian Irons, Chief of the RPD, had to say on that matter…"_

Sean clenched his fist at the sight of his chief. He really hated that man.

Suddenly a young man about 17 years old came banging through the door, looking very ill. Sean almost fell of his chair of shock.

"Jesus Christ, Luis! Are you allright?" José said to the guy, who was his nephew, and ran to him.

Luis stumbled and was about to fall when Sean caught him just in time and placed him on a chair. He noticed that he had a wound on his hand. It looked a lot like a bite mark.

"What happened to you?" He asked him.

He looked up at Sean with a pale face.

"I-I was attacked by some homeless guy. He just c-came right at me an-and...!" Luis stuttered. "He was crazed, man?"

"Slow down and relax. You are safe now. Now tell us exactly what happened?" Sabrina said with coolness.

"I was on my way to catch the bus, when some butt ugly dude jumped me from an alley." He paused. "He grabbed my arm and… and he bit a chunk clean out of my hand, man!"

Sabrina looked closer at the bite mark. It was swollen and very red.

"So I punched the guy and ran to the bus. And ever since that I've been felling kinda ill, and it's only getting worse." He started coughing wildly thereafter.

"Have you been scratching the wound?" Sabrina asked and looked up from his hand.

"Well yeah, it's been itching like crazy. I can't leave it alone."

She looked Sean in his eyes. They both had a pretty good idea of what was wrong.

"We've got to get you to a hospital right away!" Sean said to Luis, who turned to José.

"Okay, I'm gonna get my coat." José said and went out the back. Sean followed him and Sabrina helped Luis on his feet.

Sean caught him on his way back.

"Listen, he might be infected with that virus everybody's talking about." Sean said with a lowered voice.

"Yeah, I know." José said and looked down.

"Do you want us to come with you?"

"Nah, that's ok. There's nothing else you can do right now. Just help me get him in the truck."

They went back to the desk. Sabrina was struggling trying to get Luis to the door. Sean hurried over to help, holding the bag with the pizza's in one hand. José closed the door after them and locked it. And by the time they had carried Luis to the truck; José had already started the engine and was clearing the front seat.

Just as they was about to load him in the cabin, he puked on the sidewalk. Luckily none of them got hit by any vomit, but Sean still made a face of disgust.

"Sorry…" Luis mumbled wiping his mouth in his sleeve.

"That's ok." Sabrina said without a grimace. She was used to vomit in her line of work. People always had to watch their pets being operated. She remembered that one time a guy had passed out when he watched his cat get neutered. People never learn.

"Ok, on three." Sean said to her. "One…two…three!"

They pushed him up on to the seat, and shut the door carefully, trying not to hit Luis with it. José then drove off.

"Thanks!" He yelled out the window and gave it full pedal.

Sean and Sabrina just stood there watching them drive away. They kept on looking, until the truck was out of sight.

"Shit…" Sean whispered to himself, as he drove his hand trough his hair.

"Hope he's gonna be allright." Sabrina said with a sad voice.

Sean noticed that she didn't take this very well and he placed his arm around her shoulders to comfort her.

"Come on. Let's go home."


	3. Long Walk Home

_Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods_

**Aristotle**, _Nichomachean Ethics_  
_Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)_

**Chapter 3**

_Long Walk Home_

"Imagine that!" Mike said as they pulled the car up to the garage. "Nobody's home."

Patrick parked it next to Sean's Civic.

"How can you tell? His car is here." Pat went.

"Well, there are no lights on inside the house, and all windows are shut. And at this temperature Sean would probably open the windows if he were home." Mike replied with an obvious look on his face.

"Listen Einstein, he said that he would pick up the pizzas at about 6 pm, so he's probably on his way home as we speak." Pat said and looked up at Mike as he turned of the engine. "And stop looking at me like that!" He gave him a nudge.

"Yeah, but it's like 7 pm now! Don't you think he would've been home 'bout now?"

"Maybe José is just stalling him. His mouth is like 7eleven. It never closes, man!" Pat said looking down the street.

"True…" Mike said and chuckled. "Hell, he even talks when he's sleeping."

"Yeah…" Pat laughed and looked up at the rear-view mirror. His reflection stared back at him with tired hazel brown eyes. His short dark brown hair looked messy. He had a stubbly face, because he hadn't shaved since morning. He often liked to scratch it, most when he was thinking. That was exactly what he was doing at the time. The stubs felt short and pointy when he drove his fingers over his face.

He looked back the empty house and sighed deeply. Then he opened the car door and stepped out of his black 4WD Dodge Ram 1500. That car was his big pride. He had bought it not so long ago, so it was brand new. And he took really good care of it too. He washed it like 2-3 times a week, and him and Mike would often spend the entire weekend cleaning the engine.

Mike stepped out of the car too.

"Come on, let's go check if he has locked the garage door." Pat said and softly closed the car door. "Will you get the bags in the back?"

"Sure…" Mike went and crawled into the backseat of the truck.

Pat looked back at his little brother who was rolling his eyes. The two looked a lot like each other. Part the fact that Pat was a lot larger than him. Mike was kind of scruffy compared to Pat, but otherwise they had the same face, hair- and eye color. It was easy to tell they were brothers.

Pat turned around and headed for the garage door. He tried to turn the doorknob when he approached.

"Damn! Locked…" He said, cursing Sean for his efficiency. He walked over to the front door just to check if Sean had forgot to lock that one. He knew that it wasn't open, but he had to give it a try.

Mike came walking with a sports bag in each hand.

"They're all locked." Pat said to him.

Mike stopped to think for a second.

"Hey, don't Sean's parents always leave a spare key under the doormat?"

xxxxxxxxxxx

The sun was minutes away from the horizon, so it was getting a little dark. But the street lights had been turned on. They made most of the long shadows disappear, giving the road a less eerie look.

"Mike and Pat are probably wondering why we're taking so long." Sabrina said after a long times silence.

"Yeah, but we're almost there." Sean answered. "Bergen Street is just around the next bend."

Sabrina went quiet again, but soon started wondering why Pat wasn't at the precinct. He was a cop, so why wasn't he working when the city were in such a crisis.

"Shouldn't Pat be working tonight? With all these riots going on, I mean." She said eventually.

Sean smiled, but shook his head.

"Irons had him suspended." Sean said turning his look to Sabrina. "It turned out that Pat was helping S.T.A.R.S find some reports on the helicopter crash, which had happened some months ago."

Sabrina looked at him with a puzzled look.

"You know. The one that caused the loss of most of the Alpha teams men."

"Yeah, now I remember. It was all over the news back then." She said looking less puzzled.

"Well, Irons kinda found out that he had been sliding information to S.T.A.R.S behind his back." Sean said shaking his head again. "Man, he was pissed. But luckily, he only had Pat suspended. I guess it was because he didn't wanna make a big thing out of it. People could get suspicious about it, you know."

"Ok, so it's because Irons are hiding something?"

"Yeah, I've heard that the chopper might have been tampered with. And I think Irons know more about this."

"Did HE do it?" Sabrina said shocked.

"Maybe, but I can't see why. He had no reason to do it." Said Sean and shrugged his shoulders. "Besides, that paper pushing punk doesn't know shit about helicopter engines."

"Guess it isn't him then?"

"No, don't think he did it."

Sean suddenly started coughing like crazy. Sabrina took the bag, so Sean wouldn't drop it. She noticed that he was looking slightly pale.

"Are you all right?" She asked.

Sean looked at her and noticed that everything was looking kind of blurry. He felt a little dizzy too.

"Damn, my blood sugar is low."

He had apparently run low, because of the long walk and the all the energy he had used carrying Luis.

Sean stopped and leaned up against a street lamp. He reached for the inner pocket in his jacket, but it was empty.

"Double damn! I didn't take the insulin with me." He said looking a little frustrated.

"Have you forgotten your sugar tablets too?" Sabrina asked trying to help him.

"Good thinking." Sean tried his lower jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of tablets. "Bingo!"

He tried to open it, but his hands were already shacking.

"Here let me do it." Sabrina said and snatched it out of his hands. She opened it and handed it back to Sean.

"Thanks, but I could have opened it myself." Sean said and snatched them back. He took two tablets and minutes after he started to feel a lot better.

"Do you feel any change?"

"Yeah, it helped getting some sugar." Sean said and took back the pizza bag. "Let's keep moving."

"Okay, but don't push yourself to hard. Don't want you to have a relapse."

"Look I'm fine, god damn it! Quit worrying about me." Sean sneered at her.

He hated when people felt sorry for him. It was so restraining he thought, like he was weaker than anybody else. Butthen herealized that Sabrina had been a little hurt of what he had said.

"Sorry Sabrina, I didn't mean to yell at you." Sean said. "You were only trying to help."

Sabrina went silent for a while. She was well aware of Sean's illness and she was always ready to help him if he needed it. But sometimes he needed to do things on his own, without people helping him. He always wanted to prove something, and he could be really stubborn about it.

"It's ok, forget it." She said forgiving him. "Let's just get home, okay?"

She smiled at him.

_She's always so helpful and caring. _Sean thought. He knew that he rarely appreciated it, and he felt bad for that.

"Thanks." He said to her.

"For what?"

"For putting up with me."

Sabrina laughed, and wrapped her arm around his waist.

"I can't stay mad at you." She said resting her head on his shoulder.

He returned the favor and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

_Does it get any better than this?_ He thought to himself and smiled.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Pat picked up his cell phone to call Sean. He was getting a bit worried about them. They had been gone long. Mike was sitting in the living room watching the news. It was the same they had been broadcasting the entire day. They still advised people to stay indoors. He picked up the remote and turned the TV off. He hadn't been at school all day, because the university was closed due to the viral outbreak. So he had been following the news since he got out of bed. But know he had gotten pretty tired of staring at the same crap all day.

All of a sudden a phone started ringing somewhere in the house. Mike got on his feet and followed the noise. It sounded like it came from upstairs.

"I'll get it!" He yelled to his brother, even though he probably couldn't hear it because he was in the entrance hall.

He started running up the stairs. The ringing got louder for every step he took. It led him to Sean's room, and as he entered it, there was no doubt that the phone was in there. The question was where. He started looking around the bed table, and he stumbled over a pair of jeans that were ringing. He pulled out the phone and looked at it for a while. Mike wasn't really used to cell phones so he wasn't sure which button to press.

_Maybe the green one?_ Hethought to himself and pressed it. "Hello?"

"_Mike? Is that you?"_ The voice in the other end asked.

"Pat?"

"_Great! Sean didn't take his phone with him."_ Pat hung up.

Mike went downstairs again with the cell in his hands. He met Pat in the kitchen. He looked pretty worried and was walking back and forth.

"What if something happened to them?" He asked Mike. "With all the things happening right now, you know?"

"I'm sure they're fine. I think you're overreacting, all those attacks are happening in downtown. That's far away from here."

"I'm going out to get them." Pat said and went for his bag.

"Okay, I'll stay here and watch the house."

Pat pulled out two guns from his bag; a small revolver and a silver 9mm handgun.

"Here. Take this." He said and handed the revolver to Mike.

"What's that for?" Mike said and looked at it. It was a Smith&Wesson model 360 Airlite in .357 magnum.

"Just in case." Pat said, turned around and headed for the outside. "If you need me, call my cell." He yelled from the hallway.

Mike heard Pat slam the door on his way out. The house went silent for awhile. Then he sat down at the kitchen table and looked closer at the revolver. Mike knew how to use a gun, because he had been several times at the shooting range with Sean, but he wasn't very good at it though.

He pushed out the cylinder and looked at the five cartridges in the chambers.

"Has he gone insane?" He whispered to himself.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Patrick pulled out the magazine just to double check if he had loaded his Beretta M9. Fortunately he had, but if he hadn't there was a box of 9mm cartridges in the glove compartment in his car. He pulled back the slide and chambered a bullet. With the gun in his right hand, he began walking up the street. It was getting pretty dark, but the streetlamps lit up the way before him.

He lowered the gun and flipped the safety on.

_I better hide it; people could get scared if they saw me pointing it around._ He thought and showed the gun down his pants.

There weren't anybody out on the streets he noticed. But then again people had also been advised to stay in their houses. The lights were lit in most of them, so people had been listening.

Frankly, he shouldn't be out either. But he was really worried about Sean and Sabrina, and the more he thought about it the more worried he got. They could have been attacked by those infected people. He couldn't just stand down and let something like that happen to his friends. He had to look for them. He had to make sure that they were okay. He couldn't bear losing anyone close to him again. He started walking faster, slowly building up the pace.

5 years ago his parents died in a car accident. Some truck had spun out of control on the freeway, and had slammed their car into a wall.They had bothbeen crushed to death. The truck driver also died in the crash. It was tragic. Two people him and his brother had loved so much, had been taken away from them so instant. Mike was devastated when they had got the horrible news and he had been mentally unreachable for weeks. He had got several months of therapy and had almost recovered from it. But he wouldstill get depressed sometimes. Pat on the other hand had been heartbroken too, but he had to stay strong for his brother, so he could take care of him. He just locked the whole thing in, and threw the key away. But he couldn't go through that again. He would rather die than losing his friends.

"Hey! You should go home, kid!" Some old guy yelled to him. "The streets aren't safe."

Patrick looked at the man, who was apparently taking out his trash.

"It's okay. I'm a police officer." He yelled back at him.

"Suit yourself, officer." The guy said and went inside mumbling something else Pat couldn't hear. Pat just ignored it, but he was right. The streets weren't safe at all.

Suddenly he heard a loud scream. He was pretty sure it came fromaround the next corner. He pulled the gun out of his pants, turned the safety off and started running. When he almost made the corner, he thought about the scream. It had been strangely short. Maybe he was too late.

He broke into a sprint and as soon as he turned around the corner, he slowed down and raised the Beretta.

Pat lowered his gun at the sight of Sean helping Sabrina on her feet. She had apparently tripped over something and fell. That's why she screamed. They hadn't seen him yet, because he was standing a little too far away. He felt really relieved when he saw that they were perfectly fine, so he quickly shoved the gun back in his pants and hid it with his shirt. No need to scare them.

"Yo! What's taking you so long!" He yelled at them with a grin, while he approached.

They looked up, looking rather surprised.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Sean said happy to see his favorite colleague.

"Hey man." Pat said to him and theyshock hands. "Hi Sabrina." He said and smiled to her.

"Hi Pat."

"Am I glad to see you two. I was worried about you, so I went out to look for you." Pat explained.

"Yeah, we had to help José with his nephew. He had to drive him to the hospital." Sean went. "He had been bitten by some dude."

"Christ! Is he gonna be all right?"

"We don't know, but I think he might have been infected with that virus." Sabrina took over.

They all went silent for awhile.

"But you're all right?" Pat asked.

"Yeah, were fine." Sean answered for both of them. "Let's just get home."

"Okay, I'm just gonna call Mike and let him know that you're safe."

xxxxxxxxxxx

"Freeze motherfucker!"

Mike was pointing the revolver at his reflection in the mirror.

"Talking to me?" He said kidding around, trying to pass the time. He was really bored. But he couldn't sit down and watch TV. He was too tense, because he was worried about Sean, Sabrina and his brother. And so he tried to lighten himself up by goofing around.

He lowered the gun and just looked at his reflection. The small bags under his eyes clearly showed that he have had a hard life so far. He was only 20 years old, but when people were put through things like losing your loved ones, then they tend to age faster. But it had been worse. A year after the accident he had looked like some junkie. Pale skin, tired red eyes and messy greasy hair. At least now his skin had gotten some color and his hair was still messy, but that was on purpose this time around. He had also gained some weight since then. He had been extremely thin, but now he was more like Sean in size. Still a little underweight, but he had certainly recovered.

He felt better mentally too. He had been able to put all the bad things behind him and start over. He even had got a girlfriend back at the university. A cute petit girl called Judy. They weren't in love or anything, but they liked each other a lot. She really made him happy, and she had been so supporting for him. His friends had been too, but he had needed someone that was more than a friend.

Suddenly Sean's cell phone rang. He had put it in the living room, so he went there to pick it up.

"Sean's phone, it's Michael." He said.

"_Hey, Mike. It's Pat." _It sounded from the other end. _"I've found Sean and Sabrina. They're okay."_

"Great! That's good to hear." Mike said with a relief. "So when are you guys here?"

"_In about… 5 minutes."_

"Okay, then I'm gonna set the table so we can eat right away when you get here." Mike said. "I'm starving."

"_All righty. See ya, little bro."_

"Yeah, bye." They both hung up.

He looked back at the mirror, smiled to himself and sighed.

_Thank God they're safe._ He thought.

He went to the kitchen, felling much more comfort than before.


	4. In the Moonlight

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead

**Bertrand Russell**, _Marriage and Morals (1929) ch. 19_  
_British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)_

**Chapter 4**

_In the Moonlight_

The lights went on outside the house when they approached it. A little sensor over the garage door automatically lit the lights when something moved inside its field of vision.

_Neat little gadget,_ Pat thought.

It hadn't lit earlier when he had parked the car, because it still had been bright outside.

"Is that new?" He asked Sean who was about to open the front door.

"What's new?"

"You know that sensor thingy? Haven't seen it before."

Sean looked up at the sensor that was blinking faintly red everytime someone moved.

"Oh yeah, kinda new. I installed it with my dad a couple of months ago." Sean said and opened the door for Sabrina. She smiled thankfully to him.

"Weird I haven't noticed it before now, huh?"

"Yeah, well. You haven't been here so much lately."

"I know. It's all the damn work at the precinct." Said Pat and walked inside. "I've been working late because of all these incidents that keep happening."

"Tell me about it. It's like the entire city is going nuts." Sabrina said while she took of her sweater.

The sound of a toilet being flushed came from upstairs. It made them stop talking. The next sound was of fast footsteps coming down the stairs. Then Mike appeared from the staircase.

"Hey guy's!" He said and walked forward to welcome them.

"Hey man, good to see you." Sean said and gave him a friendly hug. Mike returned the favor.

"And hey, Sabrina!" He said and went to give her a hug too. "Man, I haven't seen you in ages."

She hugged him too.

"Yeah, it's been too long. You look great." She said gently.

"Thanks, I know." Mike said and smiled proudly to everyone.

"Okay, don't get too cocky, bro." Pat said in fun and punched him softly on his shoulder.

Sean laughed at them and started walking into the kitchen.

"You guys never change… Come on, let's eat!"

"Yir!" Mike yelled. "Come to me, sweet pepperoni."

Sean emptied the bag on the kitchen table and started to open all the boxes. He then handed out the pizzas to everyone. Mike and Sabrina sat down at each sides of the table, so they faced each other.

"The usual, pepperoni for the brothers." He said and handed them to the two.

"Yes, anything else on a pizza would be absurd." Pat said.

"Do you always order that?" Sabrina asked.

"Yep, never misses." Mike replied.

Sean moved on.

"Mushrooms for the lady." He said and handed her the box.

"Yay, thank you." She said and clapped her hands.

"And…" Sean said slowly opening the pizza box.

"Let me guess…" Mike interrupted. "Anchovies as always."

"Errrr!" Sean said making it sound like some quiz-show, and looked at him. "Sorry, wrong answer. Better luck next week."

Sean opened the box wide open for everyone to see.

"Pineapple!" Pat went with a grimace. "Now THAT's absurd."

"Yeah, well I wanted to try something new."

"But pineapple on a pizza?"

"Yeah, why not? I love pizza and I love pineapple. Why shouldn't the two things I love the most get a long?" He said sounding very serious.

They all laughed at him.

"What?" He said and grinned.

"You're nuts, you know that?" Mike meant.

"Can't help it." Sean answered and smiled. "Hey, does anyone want some beer?"

"Yeah, bring it." Mike said and Pat nodded.

"Me too." He said.

"Sabrina?" Sean asked.

"Yeah sure, what the hell." She said and smiled.

He then went for the fridge, and pulled out four canned Heineken beers. He walked back to the table and placed the beer in front of his friends.

"And there's plenty of them, so don't hold back."

Mike took one, opened it and took a zip.

"Ahh, there's nothing like an ice cold Heineken."

Sean noticed that he was still wearing his jacket. He then took it off and hung it over the chair, but when Pat took his off they all went silent for awhile. The Beretta was still tugged into his pants.

"Thought they took your gun, when you got suspended." Said Sean and sat down next to Sabrina.

"They did, but I like to keep spares."

"I know the feeling." Sean said and laughed.

"Great! Another gun nut." Sabrina said and looked at Mike, who was shaking his head.

"Yeah, tell me about it. That's all those two ever talk about." He said.

Pat and Sean ignored them and continued their conversation.

"Let me see it." Sean said and pointed at the gun.

Pat pulled it out of his pants.

"Pardon me." He said, ejected the magazine and pulled back the slide so the chambered cartridge flew out. He caught it in midair. "I know you don't like loaded guns in the house."

"Correct." Sean said and gave Pat a serious look.

Pat handed it to him.

"Nice. A silver Beretta M92FS. I have one just like it, only in black though." Sean looked at the cartridge Pat had ejected. "9mm HP's too?"

"HP's?" Sabrina asked and took a bite of her pizza.

"Hollow Points." Sean answered and handed her the cartridge. "You see the hole? The point is hollow, hence the name."

"Ohh, all right. I see." She said with her mouth full.

"What is that good for?" Mike asked.

"It gives greater stopping power than normal round nosed cartridges." Pat explained.

"Yeah, but that isn't standard law enforcement ammunition." Sean said and looked up at Pat. "Where did you get these?"

"At Kendo's." said Pat and put down the slice he was eating.

"Of course, he he… That's THE place to get things like that."

"Yeah, Robert can fix you up with anything."

"Actually, I bought a lot of HP bullets and empty cartridges some time ago." Sean said. "I assemble them myself. That way I can control the amount of gun powder, and it's a lot cheaper too."

"That's smart. Can I see how you do it?" Pat asked excitedly.

"Yeah, we can check it out later."

Sabrina and Mike just sat there eating their pizzas. They didn't have a clue what the other two was talking about. They could just as well have been speaking in a foreign language. Sabrina noticed that Sean hadn't even touched his pizza yet.

"Maybe you should get some to eat, Sean." She said to him as she laid a hand on his thigh. He saw it and placed his hand on hers.

"Yeah, sorry. It's just that I never get to talk with anyone about guns." He said and took a slice. "Mmm, that's not half bad."

"You're sick, dude." Mike said.

"Are you kiddin me? This is really tasty, man!" Said Sean and took another bite. "You should try it."

Mike and Pat looked at him with disgust.

"Here, let me try then." Sabrina said and grabbed Sean's wrist. She guided the slice to her mouth and took a huge bite. "Mmm, yeah. It's really good."

Sean smiled at her.

"Sure you don't want any?" He asked the brothers.

They looked at both of them with disgust now.

"Hell no. You're both sick." Mike went. "We'll stick to our pepperoni, right bro?"

"Of course… Pineapple and pizza just don't make sense, man."

Sean and Sabrina just looked at each other and shrugged.

"Suit yourself." They said at the same time. That made them all burst into laughter.

xxxxxxxxxxx

About an hour, four pizzas with fries and a lot of canned beer later they were all still sitting and talking. Sean came to think that they had not once talked about the strange things that had happened lately. They were all in such a good mood, and Sean didn't want to bring it up. This was a night of fun and coziness, not worries.

"So, what movies have you rented?"

"Ehm, only one; the devils advocate." Said Mike and fetched the VHS from his bag.

"Yay, devils advocate. I saw that last year. It's pretty good." Sabrina said.

"Yeah, I've heard that too." Mike said as he returned and laid thetape on the table. "It's a thriller."

"All right, let's put it on then."

They all got up from their chairs and started to clean the kitchen table, removing glasses and stuff like that. Sean took the pizza boxes and put them in the plastic bag, they were in earlier. He then carried them to the trashcan under the sink. But that one was filled with trash already.

"Crap. I'm going outside; the trashcan in here is crammed." He said as pulled the trash filled bag out and replaced it with an empty bag. With both the pizza bag and the trash bag, he went for the door. He stepped outside into the breezy evening. It was a little chilly, since he had left his jacket on the chair. He was only wearing a t-shirt on his upper body now. The cold made him shiver a little, and it made him tense.

The lights went on as soon as he stepped into the sensor's field of vision. He hurried to the garbage bin at the fence next to the garage. There was always a repulsive smell come from there, but he couldn't cover his nose because he had both hands full.

"We really should buy some fresh bins." He said to himself.

He opened the lid and the smell got even worse. And on top of that, the bags inside had been torn to pieces leaving trash exposed everywhere.

"Damn raccoons." He said and threw in the bags.

They could barely be in there, so he had to press them down. But as he had his hand down there, he felt something fuzzy. He quickly pulled out his hand, thinking it might have been an animal or something.

"Awww!" He yelled and looked at his hand. He had cut himself on something when he had pulled it out. He looked closely at the cut. It was pretty deep, but it didn't really hurt much. Guess it was just the shock that had made him react like that.

Curious about what had been down there; he opened the bin again and looked down. Suddenly a rat came crawling out.

"Jesus!" He said stepped back. The rat started peeling out to the streets as soon as it reached the ground. It was unbelievably fast.

"Where's my gun when I need it?" He sneered.

He opened the bin again to see what he had cut himself on. It was the glass shards from the broken glass they had thrown out earlier. Apparently the rat had been eating its way through the newspaper, leaving the glass shards everywhere inside the garbage bin.

"Argh, fucking rats." Cursed Sean as he slammed down the lid.

Holding a finger on the cut he went inside. The warmth that met him inside made him relax again. Removing all tension he might have had. His friends must have heard the door go, because they were calling for him.

"Sean! The movie is starting now." Pat yelled from the living room.

"Okay, coming in a minute!" He yelled back. He went to the kitchen to wash the wound.

It was bleeding heavily and it was really itchy. He dried his hands and ran upstairs to find the peroxide. He had to make sure that the wound was completely clean. You could never know what those shards might have been in contact with. He walked to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. Hydrogen peroxide, there it was in a small bottle. He opened it and found some cotton wool in the cabinet he could use to rinse the wound with. He poured some peroxide on the wool and started to clean the cut. It stung a little whenit started working. It started foaming too, probably because the wound hadn't been very clean.

Suddenly he heard some noise from the hallway. He stepped out of the bathroom to see what it was.

"Don't mind me. I'm just borrowing a mattress." Said Mike, who was trying to pull out the mattress from the large closet.

"Okay. You can sleep on it too if you want." Sean said. "Then Pat can take the couch."

"All right." He replied and started carrying it downstairs.

Sean went back to the bathroom to find a tube of fucidin ointment. That would help keeping the cut from getting inflamed. He'd better put on a plaster too, or else the wound wouldn't stay clean. The plaster would also help stop the bleeding.

After applying these things to his finger, he put all the stuff back in the cabinet and hurried downstairs.

"Okay, I'm back." He said as he entered the living room. "What have I missed?"

"Nothing yet, really." Pat said.

He sat down in the couch next to Sabrina. Pat was sitting in the armchair and Mike was lying on the mattress on the floor. Sabrina leaned over and whispered to him.

"What's with the plaster?" She asked.

"Oh, it's just a small cut. Nothing to worry about." He replied, understating it, so she wouldn't worry about him. "Let's just see the movie."

They both leaned back and watched the film.

xxxxxxxxxxx

When the movie credits started rolling across the screen, they all looked at each other.

"Well, that wasn't bad was it?" Pat asked.

"Yeah it was pretty good." Sean said. "Al Pacino was really convincing as the devil."

"He he, yeah." Mike said. " And how 'bout her Connie Nielsen? Pretty hot, huh?"

"I've heard that she's Danish."

"Yeah, she is." Pat said.

Sean looked over at Sabrina who had grabbed the remote and started to rewind the tape.

"So, was it just as good second time, Sabrina?"

"Hell yes. And Keanu… He's like my favorite actor."

"Okay, cool." Mike said. "He's one of my favorites too."

Sean got up from the couch to stretch his legs. Then he yawned for a long time.

"Well, I feel kinda tired, so I'm gonna go to bed." He said.

"Yeah, me too." Sabrina said yawning.

"Pat, you can sleep on the couch." Sean said to Pat who was sitting and dozing. "Hey Pat!"

"Zz-yeah, what?" Pat mumbled half asleep.

"Sleep on the couch. Not in the chair, man." Sean said smiling. "Jesus, how come you're so tired?"

"He got up really early this morning to run a few laps around the block." Mike said since Pat wasn't going to answer.

"How early?"

"Like 5 am or something. Was sleeping at the time, so I'm not sure."

"He's crazy." Sean chuckled.

"Yeah, he's training to join SWAT some day."

"Okay, cool. Anyways, I'm going to bed. Good night." Sean said watching as Pat dragged himself to the couch. As soon as he lay down, he fell asleep. Both Sean and Mike had to laugh at the sight of that.

"Out as a light." Sean said.

"Yeah, hehe. Good night." Said Mike and went for his sports bag to find his sleeping bag.

Sean headed upstairs, but as he turned away from Mike he saw that Sabrina was gone. She had already gone upstairs.

With slow lazy motions he climbed up the stairs. He opened the door to his room and turned on the lights.

_What a mess._ He thought when he saw the clothes he had left lying all around the floor. _Fuck it. I'll wash it tomorrow._

He spotted his cell phone that was lying on his nightstand. Sean didn't remember putting it there. As he recalled he hadn't even removed it from the pockets of his pants from yesterday. He checked it for in-coming calls. Pat had called him around the time Sabrina and him had gone for pizza. He thought about it for a second. It had probably been Mike who had answered it, because it didn't show as a lost call on the display.

Now he understood why Pat had been so worried. He had grown really frustrated, because he couldn't get a hold of him. That was typical of Pat too worry so much about his friends. That was good Sean thought, but sometimes it was too much. And with Sabrina worrying all the time too, he had grown kind of tired of it. It was fine that they cared so much about their friends, but sometimes Sean felt kind of suffocated.

He put the phone down on the table again and turned back to the door. He went for the bathroom to brush his teeth. On his way he could see that the lights were on in his parent's bedroom. The door was closed, but the light was glowing out of the keyhole. Sabrina was probably on her way to bed. He knew he shouldn't, but he felt the urge to peek through the keyhole. He knew she was most likely getting undressed, so there would be a pretty good chance of seeing her partly naked. But because he was a little buzzed he ignored the fact that it was wrong, and dropped to his knees so he could see.

At first he couldn't see her anywhere, but after a little waiting she appeared. She was still wearing her white sweater and her tight jeans. She picked up something from the bed and the TV turned on. Guess it was the remote. Then she walked to her bag and picked up a white t-shirt. That was the one she used to sleep in. As she turned around with her front to the door, she began to take of her sweater. First rolling it up around her stomach, and then pulling it up over her head leaving her hair rather messy. Sean gulped at the sight of her standing in with nothing but a black bra on her upper body. She looked incredibly fit, and her skin looked really smooth. He imagined how it would be to gently drive a hand over it, feeling how smooth it would be on his fingertips.

She then pulled down her zipper and took off her pants.

"Slow down…" He whispered.

She turned around and bowed forward putting the pants on her bag. From behind she was just as beautiful. Not to big, not to small. It was perfect. And the panties she was wearing were black just as her bra. She got up again and put her hands behind her back to open the bra.

Sean could feel he was starting to sweat a little.

She opened it and slowly pulled it off, throwing it at the bed. Then she took her t-shirt and pulled it over her head. When she had pulled it all the way down, she drove her hands through her hair to smoothen it since it had gone pretty messy. But suddenly she turned around and headed for the door.

"Shit!" Sean said and tried to get up as fast as he could. But that resulted in him falling on his back. In the same second Sabrina opened the door, looking very surprised when she saw Sean.

"Eh, what are you doing on the floor?" She asked.

"Well ehm…" He said trying to find an explanation.

"Were youlooking through the keyhole?" She asked looking rather serious this time.

He got up from the floor, looking a little embarrassed.

"You were, weren't you?" She looked at him, still with a serious look.

"Eh, yeah. I-ehh… I was looking, yes." He admitted.

She looked away, and then looked back at him again, only this time with a smile on her face.

"That's either the creepiest thing someone ever did to me… or the cutest."

Sean, still unable to look her in the eyes, laughed nervously. She slowly started to walk closer to him.

"So… did you see anything you liked?" She asked him with a soft seductive voice while she gave him a necking look.

"E-ehmm…" Sean stuttered and finally looked her in the eyes.

She continued to walk closer to him, swaying her hips. A little insecure about her behavior, Sean started to walk backwards. She kept her slow pace, as Sean was walking faster and faster. She was really teasing him.

But suddenly Sean hit the wall behind him. There was no escaping. Now that she was right in front of him, she stopped.

"Trapped…" She whispered to him. He could smell her honey sweet breath as she stood there.

Sabrina had already made up her mind. She was going to kiss him, whether he wanted her or not. She had to try, because she was so tired of pretending not to want him. She just wanted to give in to her urges.

Sean was felling exactly the same. He couldn't fight it anymore, he wanted to let go. Loose control.

They both took a step closer to each other at the same time. Sabrina's face lit up. Now she knew that he felt the same. Sean grabbed her around her waist and pulled her into him. There he held her tight, still looking into her eyes. Sabrina could feel his warm breath on her face. She moved her head closer to his and closed her eyes. Then he finally gave in and let his lips meet with hers. She felt a warm felling spreading inside of her, at the touch of his lips. Then she delved her tongue into his mouth, playing with his. He moaned at this, and returned the favor.

They slowly build up the pace, and the kiss got deeper and faster. She drove her hands up under his t-shirt to feel his skin. She slid them up from his stomach to his chest. His heart was pounding heavily she could feel.

She started to push him back up against the wall, still kissing him. Sean could feel her firm breasts pressing against his chest from beneath the t-shirt. He could also feel her nipples getting harder. And so was he…

Sabrina felt the bulge in his jeans and pressed herself harder against it of lust. Sean then grabbed her harder around the waist and lifted her up. She understood and locked her legs around him. He then began carrying her to his room, still massaging her tongue.

Since he couldn't see much, he didn't see that the door was closed so they bumped softly into it. It didn't hurt Sabrina, more like the opposite, because she moaned into to his mouth when they hit the door. He fumbled with the doorknob and finally got it open. They stumbled inside and fell on to the bed, where their lips separated. They stopped and looked at each other for a minute. The room was a little dark, but the moonlight lit up the most of it. Enoughtill they could see.

Then they both smiled, and Sabrina started driving her hands over Sean's arms, feeling his muscles.

He couldn't use his hands at the moment, because he was on top. He used his hands to hold him up, so he wouldn't squash her. Sabrina wanted to solve this problem and rolled him around. Now she was on top.

She bended over to kiss him once, then she grabbed his t-shirt and pulled it off him. His upper body was now bare. She felt his soft muscles as she gently ran her fingers down his chest. Then she bended over again and started kissing his body.

Sean just closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of her lips touching his skin. She started moving downwards until she came to the bulge in his pants. She then softly pressed her hand against it and squeezed. That made him sit up.

She chuckled and sat up again. Their faces met and they kissed each other hard. Now Sean grabbed her hips and pulled her into him, so she was sitting on his crotch. He was getting even harder she could feel, driving a shiver through her body.

She started to take of her shirt, and he helped her. It went over her head and off, exposing her bare breasts to Sean. He just stared at them for a second and then looked up at her. She was smiling sweetly at him. His hands found their way up to them, and he squeezed them gently. He lowered his head to one of them and kissed it. She closed her eyes and moaned silently as he teased her nipple with his tongue.

Now Sean was so hard that it started to hurt. His pants were getting a little too tight. He ignored the pain for awhile, and started to work his way up her body. Kissing her neck, then her cheek and finally her lips.

Their lips separated when she noticed he was grimacing a little. She got up on her knees and put one hand on his thigh and another on the hard bugle. She found the zipper, slid it down and opened his pants. She looked surprised when she pulled down the pants. He was fairly big.

"No wonder you'd been in pain." She said looking at him with lifted eyebrows.

Sean chuckled and felt an incredible relief of getting out of the jeans. Sabrina lay down on her side and started to pull off her panties. Sean pulled his boxers of too, and they were both completely naked now.

Sabrina crawled over to him slowly on all four. Like a cat. She stopped when she was on top of him. She looked deeply into his eyes as she grabbed a hold of him and slowly drove it into her. It just slid right in, because all that foreplay had made her really wet. Sean felt that.

He laid his hands on her hips as she moved up and down. She thrust her head backwards and closed her eyes as she breathed heavily. Sean sat up so their bodies were close again. He ran his hands over her back and buried his head in her neck, breathing in her sweet perfume. She moaned him into his ear.

He could feel goose bums across her soft skin. She was freezing, because of the draft in the room. His hands left her back and found their way to the duvet. He pulled it over his legs and up around Sabrina's waist. She stopped and looked at him, smiling.

"Thanks." She whispered and then she kissed him deeply. He returned his hands to her back, where the goose bums now had gone.

She resumed her slow motion up and down. Only now she moved in a figure eight.

Sean could feel the orgasm build slowly, and judging by the pace and sound of Sabrina's silent moans, she was getting there too. He put his head to her neck again and started moaning too.

She dug her nails into his back of ecstasy when the orgasm hit her. Biting her lip, she moaned out loud. At the same time Sean came inside her, tightening his grip around her. He thrust inside her for one last time and then they both went calm and relaxed.

They both fell to the side of pure exhaustion and Sean slid out of her.

He leaned in to kiss her gently, and she returned it, putting a hand on his chest. His hearts pace was slowing down concurrently with his breathing. Sean grabbed the duvet and covered them both with it. Then he took her hand and was just holding it there.

They laid there for a couple of minutes, smiling at each other, until they both closed their eyes and slowly drifted off into a deep sleep…


	5. The Call

Actions lie louder than words

**Carolyn Wells**

**Chapter 5**

_The Call_

Friday

September 25th, 1998

_The wind blew through his hair as he stood at the edge. There was very far down from the skyscraper he was standing on. Down on the ground dead people was walking around, their arms groping in the air.__He looked up at the sky. It was dawn and he could see the sun rise red. _

_His eyes fell on what his arms was carrying. He was holding a dark haired woman who seemed lifeless. She had some of her hair lying down in front of her face, so he couldn't see who it was. He slowly pushed the hair aside, revealing her face. It was Sabrina. _

_Sinking to his knees, he cried out loud as much he could. Screaming at the burning buildings around him, he held Sabrina as tight as he could. __His tears dripped down on her peaceful face. _

_Then everything went white and he felt the wind blowing harder than ever. He buried his face in Sabrina's neck for one last time._

_Sorry…_

Sean woke up, looking confused around the room.

_Damn it! Not that dream again._ He thought as he calmed down. He had had that dream several times the last couple of weeks. And everytime it had felt so real.

When he came to his senses, he noticed the silent sound of a phone ringing somewhere. He turned over to see what time it was. The clock radio showed 2.42 am.

_Who would call me at this time?_ He thought.

He slowly crawled out of the bed, trying not to make too much ruckus. He wouldn't want to wake Sabrina. He stood up rubbing his eyes free of sleep. His eyes slowly got adjusted to the dark and he could see again. He looked around, but stopped when he saw Sabrina lying in his bed.

_God, she's beautiful._ He thought looking at her as she lay there, resting her head on her hands.

The phone rang again. Now he could hear it came from the hallway. It was the phone by the computer that was ringing.

He found his underwear on the floor; put it on and strolled out the door that was still open. They had forgotten to close it when he had carried her to bed. He wondered if Mike or Pat had heard them downstairs. He wasn't really worried about it though, it only made him laugh to himself.

Once again the phone rang.

"Yeah yeah." He said getting pretty annoyed by the sound of it. He practically ripped the receiver of the phone.

"Yeah?" He spoke with an irritated voice.

"_Sean! Thank god, you're okay."_ The voice said in the other end. Sean recognized it as his fathers.

"Dad? Why are you calling at this time?"

"_Sorry, but it's very important that you listen to me right know."_

"What is so important that it can't wait till the morning?"

"_I know it might sound unreasonable, but you need to get out of Raccoon City right away!"_

"What! Why?" Sean said getting really annoyed by this.

"_I don't have time to explain. Just do as I tell you too!"_

"If it's so goddamn important, you could at least tell me what it's about!"

"_I'm not sure, but Umbrella is starting to evacuate most of their more valuable employees from the city. And that means that something's terribly wrong in there."_

Sean thought of all the strange things that had been going on lately. Maybe evacuation wasn't an overstatement.

"All right, we'll try to get out of the city."

"_Good. But hurry. The military will most likely barricade the city in the morning. After that no one will be allowed to leave."_

"Okay, but where should we go?"

"_Just get out as soon as possible. But don't call me; I will call _you_ over the cell phone with further instructions."_

"Okay… guess there's no time to pack either?"

"_No. Just get in your car and drive. I'll tell you all about it later. Goodbye."_

He hung up. Sean just stood there for a couple of seconds.

_What the fuck is going on?_

xxxxxxxxxxx

Downstairs Mike had been woken by the sound of Sean arguing with someone. He got up as he rubbed his eyes. Curious about what was going on, he started putting some close on and walked towards the stairs. But Mike had just put a foot on the first step, when he saw Sean at the top of the stairs.

He looked quite worried, and that only made him more curious about it.

"Pssst!" Mike said trying to keep his voice down. "What's going on?"

Sean went down to him.

"It was my dad. He just called me from Paris." Sean said with a troubled tone. "He thinks that we should leave town for awhile."

"Because of that virus thing? But isn't that under control?"

"Apparently not. But my dad just informed that there will most likely be military blockades around the city tomorrow."

"And then we can't leave the city at all." Mike finished Sean's sentence. "I get it."

"Yeah, and if things get worse then we're in deep shit."

"I'll go wake up Pat, and you should probably haul Sabrina out of your bed."

Sean looked surprised at Mike.

"So you know..?" Sean said and looked down.

"Yeah, I heard you talking last night. So guessed she slept in your room."

"Is that all you heard?" Sean said looking a little embarrassed.

"Yeah, why?" Mike said looking confused at Sean. "Kinda fell asleep after that."

"Oh, n-nothing…" Sean said and ran upstairs.

Mike chuckled and shook his head. He hadn't heard what they had been doing, but he had figured it out. He was just messing with Sean. He could be a little naive sometimes.

Mike turned around and headed for the living room to pull his brother out of dream world.

xxxxxxxxxxx

When Sean reached his room, he saw that Sabrina was already awake. She was sitting up in the bed, covering her body with the duvet. She turned on the lamp on the nightstand. He walked over to her and gave her a kiss on the forehead. She smiled at him, but there was a curious look on her face.

"What's going on? Why are you up?" She asked with a silent voice.

"Listen." He whispered to her and took her hand in his. "We have to leave town. My dad just called me and said that things might get worse around here. So we have to bail while we can."

She looked puzzled at him and swallowed hard.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, Umbrella Inc. whom my dad works for, are already evacuating. We should do the same. Just to make sure."

"Okay… I'm with you." She said and kissed his hand.

He smiled at her and drove a finger over her ear, pushing her long hair with it.

"Good."

Sean was just about to get up, but she didn't let go of him. He sat down again and looked into her steel blue eyes.

"I had a really great time last night." She said biting her lip, smiling.

He smiled from ear to ear, while a lovely warm feeling hit him.

"So did I." He said and leaned closer to her, stopping just a few inches from her lips.

She went the last piece of way, pressing her lips hard against his. They separated again, still with their faces up close.

"Hi." He whispered, grinning.

"Hi back." She whispered giggling. Then she gave him a quick kiss.

"Come on. Let's get out of here." She said and took on her t-shirt that was lying in the foot end.

Sean started putting on some clothes too. But before he put his pants on he took a shot of insulin. He felt a little groggy, but it soon faded away.

Ignoring what his father had said, he started packing some clothes too. He had to have something with him. Who knew how long they would be out of town. He took his insulin pack and dumped it in the bag. He took the extras he had in the drawer too.

_Four in the pack, and six extras. That's only enough for a few days._ He thought as he counted the extras before putting them in a small cardboard box, and carefully showing it in the bag. _Hope there's a pharmacist where were going._

He looked over his shoulder and to see that Sabrina was ready to go. She was apparently only waitingfor him.

"Are you done yet?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm ready."

He got up, turned of the light and followed her out the door. When they got downstairs Pat was getting ready too, while Mike was waiting.

"Me and Pat need to get to the university first." Mike said walking towards Sean.

"Why? That's like the other end of town! What do you need to go there for?" Sean said and frowned.

"It's Judy. I just called her. She's at the dormitory." Mike replied. "I'm not leaving without her."

Sean nodded understandingly.

"All right, we'll wait for you here then."

Pat walked up to them too, looking kind of drowsy.

"You're sure you can drive?" Sabrina asked watching him as he rubbed his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm sure." He answered as he yawned. "If there are any problems, call my cell."

"Okay, drive safe." Sean said to Pat who was already heading for the door.

Mike took his bag and started going the same way. Sabrina and Sean followed him out. They stood in the door as Mike continued to the car. Pat had already started the Dodge.

"Be careful." Sean yelled to them before Mike closed the car door. He wasn't sure that they heard it though.


	6. Frustration

A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward

**Jean Paul Richter**  
_German author (1763 - 1825)_

**Chapter 6**

_Frustration_

Sean was tired, but he couldn't sleep. Sabrina and he were lying in his bed. She was sleeping, her head resting on his stomach. He was staring at the window. The moon still lighting up the room and the streets outside. Not a cloud in the sky. His one hand was stroking her dark hair; his other was clenching his cell phone.

There had past more than an hour since they left. They should have been back by now. He had been calling them several times, but no one had answered it. Hetried to call them again, even though he didn't expect it to be answered.

For a minute he waited, then he hung up. He slammed the phone to a pillow. It was driving him crazy thinking about what might had happened. He hoped to god that they were okay.

Suddenly the automatic light outside turned on. Sean frowned, because he didn't hear a car pull up to the garage. Normally you could hear even an almost soundless car coming. Wondering what it could be, he slowly slipped out of Sabrina's kung-fu grip and walked to the window.

He couldn't see anything down there. The area was clear. Nothing down there except his car. It couldn't have been some animal that had triggered the censor. It was programmed not to react to such small things. It had got to be something at least at the size of a human. So someone was down there.

Sean opened the window to get a better look. He stretched his body as far out as he could, trying to get a look at the front door. Nothing there either. He carefully closed the window again. No reason in waking Sabrina. It was probably just his neighbor taking a walk with his dog.

_At 4 in the morning? Yeah right…_

He glanced at his closet, thinking that he should take his 9mm with him. But then he had to get some ammo in the basement first, and that would take too long. Instead he decided to take his wooden baseball bat with him. He slowly went out the door and down the stairs, being real silent. He moved through the darkness with ease, because his eyes had already adjusted to the lack of light.

As he approached the front door, he saw that the light was still lit outside. That meant that whoever was out there kept on moving around the censor.

He tightened his grip around the bat. Not that it was the best weapon of choice. It would easily break, because it was wooden and not made of aluminum. But it would probably scare most people anyways.

He reached for the doorknob and just as he was about to turn it, a shadow moved past the door. He couldn't se what it was through the small window in the front door. The window was made out that kind of blurry glass, so all he saw was a silhouette. It was most definitely a human.

He hesitated for a second and took a deep breath, building up his confidence. Then he slowly turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. The cool morning air hit him and he shivered. He took a careful peep outside, looking to both sides to check if IT still was around. Nothing was there. Not a soul.

He stepped out on the cold flagstones. It was now hefelt he wasn't wearing any shoes or socks for that matter. Ignoring it he moved in the direction of the garage, still holding the bat in attack position. He moved as stealthy as he could, not making a single sound.

Suddenly he heard a crashing sound of metal to the ground. It came from around the corner of the garage. It sounded like the garbage bin had been tilted.

He sprinted to the corner to surprise whoever it was. But when he got there it was hard to see what it was, because there was no lights back there. Again all he could see was a silhouette. He could tell that he was male, judging by the broad shoulders. He was facing away from Sean.

"Hey!" Sean yelled to him with hostility in his voice.

The man slowly turned around, staggering as he did it.

"If you don't leave right away, then I'm calling the cops!" Sean tried.

He got no response.

Then the guy started walking in Sean's direction. Intimidated by this Sean raised the bat even higher.

"Stay back! I'm warning you!" He yelled with all his power. But the guy just kept walking towards with a slow, but steady, pace.

Suddenly a horrible smell hit him, making him covering his nose with his sleeve. It smelled like what Sean only could describe as some week old roadkill or something.

First he thought it was coming from the trash can that had just been knocked over, but as the man stepped out into the light, Sean got more convinced that it was him and not the trash that reeked of decay. A cold shiver went up his spine when he saw him.

The guy was all covered in dried blood on his upper body. Most likely from the throat that seemed to have been ripped open. A gushing wound now showing.

Besides the blood, his clothes were really dirty too. It looked like he had been dragged cross the ground or something.

And last, his face. That was by far the worst. The skin was looking grey and decaying. Several wounds across it too. One wound so deep that it had went through the chin. He could see his bloodied teeth through it.

That was till he saw his eyes. They looked so dead and empty. All white they were. You could vaguely see their pupils.

"Jesus Christ…" Sean said silently almost whispering. He lowered his bat by the sight of the decaying man. The smell getting worse the closer he got.

Suddenly he raised his arms and started staggering a little faster towards Sean. But Sean was frozen for second, he couldn't move a muscle.

_What is that thing!_ Sean thought, as he finally snapped out of it and started moving backwards.

_How can he be alive? That wound looks fatal._ He thought trying to make sense of it. _No one can survive such blood loss. That man shouldn't be walking!_

As he staggered backwards, Sean suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground, banging the back of his head into the flags. His eyes went black for second and he let go of the bat.

When his sight returned he could see that thedecaying manwas right on top of him, already descending to its knees. It then fell on top of him and Sean tried to reach for the baseball bat, but it had rolled out of reach.

Abandoning the bat, he covered his face instead when the man suddenly grabbed his right arm with both hands. Sean tried his best to get free, but the guy was really strong. He tried punching him instead, but that didn't work either.

"Let go, you sick freak!" He screamed at him.

Then he opened his mouth and sunk his teeth into Sean's arm.

"Arrrgggh!" Sean screamed and started punching the guy again and again. Then he finally let go of his arm and Sean pulled it to him.

But he wasn't done; instead he went for Sean's neck. But Sean was fast and put his left arm to his throat, so he couldn't get closer. The smell was unbearable and now he had to breathe the guys disgusting breath too. It was so bad that it made Sean weaker, because he couldn't breathe properly.

_Can't hold him much longer…_ Sean thought and was just about to give up when he heard a slunk and a crack. The guy suddenly went limb and he pushed him to the side.

Sean looked up to see what had hit him and there she was. Sabrina, standing there with a cracked baseball bat.

She threw the remains to the ground and ran to him and hugged him.

"Are you ok?" She asked sounding really upset.

"Yeah, I'm fine now." He said and smiled. "But don't think he's doing so fine though."

The both of them looked over at the lifeless body.

"What was that guy?"

"I think he was infected with that virus. But I'm not sure."

"What? Is that what happens to you if you get infected?"

"I don't know, but that's the only way I can explain it."

Sabrina reached her right hand out to help him up. Sean grabbed it, but then she saw the bite mark on his arm and she stopped.

"You're hurt. Let me take a look at that." She said and helped him up.

Sean held out his arm so she could see it properly.

"It's not very deep. Think a bandage should be enough to stop the bleeding."

"Yeah, but it hurts like hell." Sean said and made a grimace when she touched the wound. "Aww!"

"Quit whining and let's get inside."

"What about that guy?" Sean asked and looked over at the body.

"Think we have to call the cops." She said dragging Sean inside the house again.

They stepped into the house and went straight for the kitchen, switching on the light as they got there.

"I'm gonna go get the med. kit, so stay here." She said and ran upstairs.

Sean walked over to the phone on the wall and pulled of the receiver. He dialed 911 and put it to his ear. The phone was dead.

"That's weird…" Sean said wondering. Then he thought of his cell and ran upstairs to get it. On his way up there he bumped into Sabrina.

"Didn't I just tell you to stay downstairs?" She said with a firm voice.

She was really worried about him. Now that he had been bitten, she knew there was a chance that he could be infected. But she knew that getting him to a hospital in the city was impossible. They were all maxed out. But maybe they could make it to one outside the city. They just had to get out as soon as possible.

"Sorry. The phone downstairs was dead, so Iwanted to try my cell instead."

"Okay, but how about the phone up here?"

"I don't know. Try it."

She took the receiver and listened.

"Weird. This one's dead too." She said looking puzzled.

"We'll try my cell." Said Sean and went inside his room get it. The cell phone was where he left it. On the bed.

He took on a shirt before picking it up, but it suddenly started ringing. He almost dropped itat the shock.

The display wrote Pat. He pushed the green button.

"Yeah?"

"_Sean! We're almost there." _Pat yelled in the other end. There was a lot of noise. Probably from the car.

"That's about damn time! Where the fuck have you been?" Sean yelled back and looked over at Sabrina, who understood that they were on their way.

"_Yeah I'm sorry. But we were a bit tied up. The city's a mess, man. We couldn't get to Judy."_

"Shit, man. Where are you now?"

"_We're taking the turn down Bergen Street right now."_

"_Oh shit! Pat! Watch out!"_ A voice in the background yelled. Then Sean could hear a lot of yelling and tires screeching. And suddenly the phone went dead.

"Pat! Pat!" He yelled into the cell.

"What's going on?" Sabrina asked confused.

"Think they just crashed or something. We gotta go get them." Sean said and quickly ran downstairs, Sabrina following right behind him.

They took on some shoes and Sean grabbed the keys to his car as they stepped out the door.

He ran to the Honda, unlocking it with the remote. But he stopped when he saw that Sabrina had stopped at the door. Her face was all white.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

She pointed at a bloodstained area on the flags. That was where that guy had been lying. Now Sean's face went all white too.

"Where the fuck is he!" Sean yelled, sounding stressed. "We killed him! How is he still alive?"

He looked over at Sabrina expecting her to have an explanation, but she looked just as terrified and confused as him.

"Argh! Fuck's happening to this city?" He yelled getting really frustrated. "Shit, let's just get to Pat and the others!"

Sabrina ran to the car and they both got in. He started the car and put it in reverse. He ripped the car backwards out on the road and put it in 1. gear. The tires screeched as he gave it full throttle, pressing them both back in their seats.

He kept on accelerating till he saw something in the distance. It was Pat's Dodge RAM. It was lying on the side. Sean hit the brakes and brought the car to stop. He quickly got out of it and started running to the RAM. Sabrina was right behind him.

The hood was smashed and not to far away was a broken street lamp. It was obvious that Pat had hit it and flipped to the side afterwards.

"Pat! Mike! Can you hear me!" He kept yelling as he tried to find a way into the car. He decided to crawl on to it and try to open the door. He couldn't get it open. It had been deformed by the crash.

Jumping back down on the ground, he ran to the windshield too look inside. Pat was unconscious. But Mike was awake. He looked a little banged up, but he was conscious.

"Kick in the glass!" He yelled to Sean. And so Sean took a few steps back and started kicking at it. At first it cracked, but as he kept kicking it started to come out of the frame. It didn't shatter so it was in one piece when he pulled it out.

Inside Mike unplugged his seatbelt and he fell down on top of Pat. That didn't wake him though.

Sean looked inside the RAM, where Mike had already removed Pat's seatbelt and was trying to pull him out. Sean crawled in there too and started pulling in Pat's arm.

"Damn! He's stuck!" Mike cursed.

"It's the pedal. His foot is stuck between that and the floor." Sean said and let go of the arm. He stepped out of the car and yelled to Sabrina who was heading for the nearest house to get help.

"Sabrina! The jack! Hurry!"

"The jack! Where is it!" She yelled back as she turned around.

Sean ran to his car to get it himself.

"It's in the back." He said as he ran past her, heading for the back of the car. He opened it and removed the carpet. Underneath there was a spare tire. He grabbed it, ripped it out and threw it to the side. Now he could get to the jack. He took it and ran back to Mike.

"Hurry Sean! I smell gasoline!" He yelled to Sean as he came running.

"Shit." Sean said to himself and started running faster.

When he got to the flipped car he stepped through the opening. He got to his knees and crawled down to the pedals. He placed the jack under the pedal that was holding Pat's foot down and started turning the handle. The pedal slowly started bending.

"It's working! Try pulling him out now." Sean said to Mike who nodded and tried pulling Pat out.

"No. He's still stuck."

Sean started turning the handle again, but it kept getting harder and harder to do it.

"Now!" Sean yelled when he couldn't turn it anymore.

Mike pulled as hard as he could and Pat got free. Sean crawled out and started helping Mike dragging Pat. At that instant a spark lit some of the gasoline that was leaking from the tank.

"Fuck!" Mike yelled. "Faster! It's gonna blow!"

They took Pat's arms over their shoulders and started moving as fast as they could.

Suddenly the RAM burst into flames and they threw themselves to the pavement. The fire lit up the entire neighborhood and Sean had to cover his eyes when he turned around to see it. The car was now a flaming fireball.

Sabrina ran to them and helped them to their feet.

"No… Not my car…" Pat mumbled. He had apparently regained consciousness. He sat up and rubbed his head.

"Aw!" He said when he hit a sore point. He had hit the side window when the car tipped. Sabrina was there immediately. She knew a thing or two about medical attention.

"Let me see that." She said and kneeled to take a closer look at the bruises on his forehead. "Do you feel dizzy or nauseous?"

"Yeah a little bit of both…"

"Okay. How many fingers am I holding up?" She asked and held three fingers up before his eyes.

"Three…"

She looked at Sean and Mike who was standing up.

"I guess it's only a mild concussion. But he needs to rest or else it'll get worse."

"Okay, I'm gonna go get some help." Sean said and pointed at the nearest house.

He started running to it. But then he started wondering why no one had reacted to the explosion. That would at least have woken up the entire neighborhood. And there wasn't even a light lit in the house he was heading towards.

He stopped and turned around to check out the streets and the other houses. But everything wasn't as empty as he first thought it was.

On the other side of the street a man stood on the sidewalk watching it all. And further down there was lights lit in some of the houses.

He ran to the guy across the street waving his hands.

"Hey, we need help here!" He yelled at him.

_Why is he just standing there? What's wrong with him! _Sean thought. But then he saw something that made his legs stop moving. The guy who was standing there suddenly raised a revolver and pointed it straight at Sean.

"Don't come any closer!" He screamed at him. "You won't get me too!"

"Wha-what!" Sean yelled back not understanding why. "We need to call the cops or something."

The guy had an insane look on his face. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was pale.

"The cops ain't coming!"

"What do you mean the cops ain't coming?"

"Cause I've been calling them all day! And no one has made it out here!" He started yelling like crazy and cocked his gun.

"Whoa! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Just turn around and go back! Or I will shoot."

He couldn't talk sense in to that guy no matter how hard he tried. Not wanting to get shot Sean slowly started to back away. Eventually he turned around and ran back to the car, where Sabrina and Mike had carried Pat to the backseat.

"So are the police coming or what?" Mike asked.

"No, he wouldn't help us! He was crazed." Sean said frustrated. "He threatened me with a gun!"

"What!" Sabrina blurted out.

"Yeah, and I'm not trying another house. So I think we should head for my house and lay low there for awhile. Can Pat handle that?"

"Yes, he's gonna be fine. No need for a hospital." Sabrina answered.

"Not like there's anyone to go to anyways." Pat mumbled.

"Yeah, he's right. They're all full." Mike said. "But what about leaving town?"

"That's out of the question!" Sabrina made clear. "Pat can't handle a trip like that. He needs to lay still for a day or more."

"Okay, then it's settled. We're going home."


	7. Fort Knox

**AN: I want to thank everyone who have been reading and reviewing my story. You have been really supportive everyone and that keeps me going in difficult times like these. Have been off the writing part for awhile, because of the dreaded writer's block. But your kind remarks is the main reason I've started again.  
Also, I like when people are honest about it, so don't hesitate to point out anything that you think can be improved.  
Anyways... keep on reviewing! You guys are the greatest!**

The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes.

**Harold B. Lee**  
_US Mormon clergyman (1899 - 1973)_

**Chapter 7**

_Fort Knox_

"Can't believe that no one came to help us!" Sabrina said as she held the door for the other three. Pat couldn't walk by himself, so Sean and Mike had supported him from the car to the front door.

"I'm calling the cops right now!" Sabrina said and went for the stairs. "You left the cell phone in your room, right?"

"Ehm, yeah." Sean said not really paying attention. He was too busy dragging Pat around. He didn't use his legs at all, so Mike and Sean were practically carrying him. They put him down on the sofa in the living room.

"Phew!" Sean sighed. "Damn, you're heavy."

Pat didn't respond he just closed his eyes and tried to rest.

"So… What the hell happened out there?" Sean asked Mike.

"Some bum just walked out in front of us when we took the turn. Pat dodged him, but then the car spun out of control and we hit that streetlamp." Mike paused. "That's the last I remember."

"Okay…" He thought about it for awhile. "You said a bum? In this neighborhood?"

"Yeah, I know. But I'm pretty sure he was a bum."

"How come?"

"Cause he was wearing dirty, worn out clothes. And he had long greasy hair. Plus he seemed drunk."

A cold shiver went up through Sean's spine. That was exactly how he would describe the man who attacked him earlier.

"Did you happen to see his eyes?"

"No… Why?" Mike said and frowned.

"No reason…" Sean replied, not telling anything about the struggle he had had with that "thing". He didn't want to trouble him with anymore worries.

"But what about Judy?" Sean asked.

"Yeah, we never got to the dormitory. There are huge roadblocks in downtown. But I called her and she got someone else to drive her."

"Okay, that's good."

"Yeah, and she said that she would call me when she got out of the city."

"Then let us hope she will make it out in time."

Suddenly Sabrina came running down the stairs with the cell in her hand.

"Good news. I've called 911 and told everything about the crash. So they will try to get a patrol car out here to sort this mess out."

"Okay, it's a little late for that, but I guess we have to report what happened." Mike said.

All of them went silent for awhile. Then Sean got up from the chair he was sitting in. He walked over to Sabrina.

"Would you help me with the bandage?" He asked her silently so Mike wouldn't hear it. She nodded and followed him upstairs. They went to his room where she had left the med. kit.

"Still can't believe that no one did anything out there." Sabrina said and unpacked the kit.

"Can you blame them? They were all told to stay indoors no matter what?" Sean said and sat down in the bed.

"But that wouldn't stop you, would it?"

"Well I don't know… Maybe not." He rolled up his sleeve on his right arm, exposing the bite.

She found a bandage and a cleansing tissue and started cleansing his wound. It wasn't that bad, the bleeding had stopped, so she just had to clean it and wrap it in the bandage to keep it closed. But as she did it she slowly started sobbing, because she couldn't take this any more. Sean had been attacked by this "thing", and her friends had been in serious danger just few minutes ago. That was just too much for her. And she had a feeling that this was only the beginning. Sean hugged her and held her tight.

"Sean, I'm so scared…" She whispered as the tears ran from her eyes.

"It's ok… It's ok." He said trying to calm her down.

"No it's not! Mike and Pat could have died in that crash and you…" She sniffled. "You might be infected with that virus because of that bite."

Sean looked her in the eyes.

"The symptoms were itching and nausea, right?" Sean said sounding optimistic.

She nodded while drying her eyes.

"Well, I haven't felt any of those." He said and forced a smile. "So maybe I'm not infected at all."

She smiled at him. No matter how bad things were Sean could always turn it to something good. She really loved his optimism, but she knew that there was no way to tell if he had been infected or not. They didn't know how long it would take before the symptoms would show. But still he managed to calm her down, even though she knew these things.

"I love you Sean…" She whispered to him.

"I love you too, Sabrina." He whispered back to her and kissed her. _I love you so much…_

xxxxxxxxxxx

Upstairs Sabrina was sleeping and in the living room Pat was resting. Mike had fallen asleep too, as he sat there in the armchair. Sean couldn't sleep, because of the bite. It was aching like hell. That guy had really got his teeth in deep. He was lucky that he hadn't bitten an entire chunk out of his arm. Sean tried to ignore it and focused on something else.

He started watching Pat, who was still lying in the sofa. He was asleep, but he kept making grimaces with his face, like he was having a bad dream or something. It was weird to see such a big guy be so vulnerable. Sean had always thought of him as unbreakable, but he could break just like everyone else. It was quite sad when he thought of it. But he was going to be fine.

Sean wished he could get some sleep. He really needed it, though he wasn't tired. It would, however,eventually catch up with him. But someone had to stay up anyways. The police could be there any minute.

He sat down at the kitchen table, because he was getting tired ofstanding up. His eyes traveled to the clock on the wall. 4.41 it said.

_What is taking them so long?_ He thought and yawned. Actually he _was_ kind of tired. _Well, it can't hurt to close my eyes for just a sec._

His head slowly went towards the table as he closed his eyes. He rested his head on his right arm and…

"Aww!" He sat up again and bit his teeth hard together. He had placed his head right on the wound and now it was hurting more than ever. He felt pretty stupid by doing so. Now he couldn't sleep at all, but maybe that was for the better.

Then his cell phone started ringing. It was probably his dad, calling to check if they had made it out of town.

"Yeah?"

"_Sean. It's your dad. Have you made it out safe?"_

Sean paused for a second. He knew his dad was going to freak when he heard that they still were inside the city.

"No."

"_What do you mean "no"!"_

"We're still in the city. Pat and Mike were involved in a car crash, and Pat sustained a concussion."

"_Damn." _He said, knowing how much those guys meant to Sean. _"Are they going to be all right?"_

"Yes, but we can't seem to get the police out here. We've called for them, but they haven't shown up yet."

"_Don't expect them to show up. The city is a mess."_

"So I have been told. But how do you know?"

"_I'm watching the city by satellite."_

"What? Isn't that illegal?"

"_Yeah, well that's not the only illegalities Umbrella is doing. But never mind that. Are you at the house?"_

"Yeah. And looks like we're gonna stay here for awhile. We can't move Pat. That would make his condition worse."

"_That doesn't matter anyways. The city has already been barricaded."_

"Shit!"

"_Yes, the military set up the blockades an hour ago. So you can't leave."_

"So what do we do then?"

"_You have to stay in the house. And don't let anyone in. Just stay there and wait for further instructions from me."_

"All right. Wasn't planning on going anywhere anyway."

"_By the way, have any of your friends been bitten by anything or anyone?"_

Sean went silent for awhile.

"Ehm no, but I've been. Some guy attacked me outside the house."

"_Hmm…Are you all right?"_

"Well, yeah. But isn't there a chance that I've been infected?"

"_Yes, but that doesn't matter. As long as you haven't gotten sick. But I'll have to explain later. "_

"What? What do you mean?" He was cut short by a series of sounds over the phone.

"_Crap! I have to go Sean. They might be on to me…"_

"On to you? What's going on?" Said Sean, getting really pissed of not getting any answers. But his dad had already hung up.

"Arggh!" He sneered and threw the phone aside.

_What did he mean it didn't matter?_ Sean thought and covered his face with his hands of frustration. _How can it not matter thatI'minfected?_

He couldn't quite figure it out, but he trusted his father. He knew a lot about medical stuff. So if he said that Sean shouldn't worry about it, then he really shouldn't.

_Hell, I gotta get some sleep._ He thought and walked upstairs to Sabrina. She was sound asleep lying on her side, and Sean just lay down beside her. He didn't even bother taking his clothes off first. He just closed his eyes and fell asleep almost instantly.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sean slowly came to his senses. He opened his eyes and expected to see Sabrina lying besides him. But she was nowhere to be seen. He quickly sat up and looked around the room, hoping to find her. It was day and the sun shined through the window illuminating every corner of the room. But Sabrina wasn't there. He crawled out the bed and stood up.

"Whoa!" He said and rubbed his eyes. He had got up to fast so his vision went blurry for a second.

When he came to, he ran to the door. Downstairs were the sound of a TV that was on. Sounded like the news or something.

He ran downstairs and saw them all standing in front of the TV.

"Hey Sean, you're up?" Sabrina said surprised and walked up to him. She gave him a kiss.

"Mmm, cereal." Sean said when tasting her.

"Yeah, I just had breakfast." She giggled.

"And you showered too?"

"Yes, but I couldn't get myself to wake you up. You were sleeping so gently." She said and put a hand on his cheek.

"Hey, keep it down!" Pat said a little annoyed by their cuddling. "We're trying to watch the news here."

Sean just looked back at Sabrina and shrugged. He then looked to the TV. It displayed a lot of images through out the city. It was exactly as Pat and Mike had described it; a mess.

"_Here we're standing at the RPD headquarters, where the police are apparently setting up a perimeter to hold back any potential riots. We are going to ask Chief Inspector Brian Irons what exactly is going on. __There he is."_

The reporter walked up to Irons, but got turned down instantly.

"_Get that damn camera out of my face!"_ He was yelling and pushed the camera away.

"_Uhmm, back to the studio."_ The reporter said and on the screen a studio appeared.

"_We have no more footage of the incidents so far, but are working on it as of now."_

The TV suddenly went on emergency broadcast. Pat sighed and lay down in the sofa.

"What's wrong?" Sean asked him.

"It's been like that all morning. All little news and a lot this." He said and pointed at the TV.

"That sucks…" Sean said and looked over at Mike. "Any changes so far?"

"No, not really. But everything is slowly getting worse. There was an attack on one of the news reporters earlier this morning."

"Sick. What happened?"

"I'm not sure, but the camera suddenly went all shaky and went black seconds later. And you could hear a lot of screaming and yelling."

"Yeah, it was terrible." Sabrina said.

Sean stopped to think for awhile. The disease was getting closer and closer by the hour. They had to do something.

"We have to make a plan of how we're gonna tackle this." He meant.

"What do you mean?" Mike asked.

"Well, we have to take some precautions."

"Yeah, the riots will get here. It's just a matter of time." Pat intervened.

"What, you mean like barricading the doors or somethin'?" Mike asked.

Sean shrugged.

"Well, yeah. Something like that."

"Isn't that a little hasty?" Mike asked a little skeptic. "I think we should wait and see. It's not like it's outside our doors already, right?"

Sean looked over at Sabrina, and she nodded. She knew what was coming. He pulled up his sleeve and showed the bloody bandage to Pat and Mike.

"What the fucks that? Did you cut yourself at the car crash?" Mike asked a little shocked. "Why are you showing us this now?"

Sean shook his head.

"It's not a cut. It's a bite." Sean said.

"What!?" Pat burst out.

"Yeah, got attacked this night." Sean said and started explaining the entire séance as it had happened...

"So he had just got up and walked away?" Mike asked after hearing Sean telling the story.

"I guess. But I think it's the same guy who walked out in front of your car Pat."

"It sure seems like it. The way you described him sounds exactly like what we saw."

"But if there's one, there's most likely more, right?" Sabrina asked wondering.

They all looked her way.

"You're right." Mike said. "We have to barricade the house."

"Pat, are you feeling up to that?" Sabrina asked referring to his concussion.

"Of course, can't just sit here letting you guys do all the work." He answered determined. "Besides, I'm feeling much better today."

"That's a good sign. Doesn't seem like you have taken any serious damage either. Your bruises look better now." Sabrina said after a closer look at his forehead.

"It's not like he would sustain any brain damage if that was the case." Mike said and chuckled. "Due to the lack of brain."

"Think you're pretty funny, huh?" Pat said and kicked him on the thigh.

"Aww! Can't you take a joke?" Mike said and punched his shoulder. Sean looked over at Sabrina and they both shook their heads.

"Come on guys!" Sean said and clapped his hands hard to get everyone's full attention. "This is serious. We need to get this house locked down."

Mike and Pat stopped their childish acts. Mike helped Pat to his feet and they walked to Sean.

"Come on, let's sit at the table." Sabrina said.

"Good idea." Sean said and found a pen and some paper. He sat down and drew a quick sketch of the house. "Okay, here's how we're gonna do this…"

xxxxxxxxxxx

A couple hours later the house was almost completely barricaded.

All windows on the first floor had been sealed shut with nails, and some boards had been nailed to the frames. But they had placed the boards outside the house instead of inside. That was to keep the windows from being smashed. The backdoor to the house had been locked and the freezer had been moved in front of it. So it couldn't be kicked in if someone tried to. The garage door hadn't been barricaded or anything. No one could get that open if it was locked anyways. Sean had parked his Civic inside the garage for quick escape too.

The only openings they hadn't been blocked, were the windows on second floor and the front door. The windows were simply because it was impossible to reach them from the ground and the front door were their second escape route, so it had only been locked. Besides, the front door was strong and not likely to break if someone tried to force their way through it. But they had placed a heavy bookcase next to the door. It could be used for reinforcement if it became necessary.

Sean, who had just nailed the last boards to the living room windows, lowered the hammer and looked over at Mike. He was standingon a chair and was reaching for the censor over the garage. Sean hadn't noticed that until now.

"Ehm, Mike?" He asked kind of curious of what was going on.

"Yeah?"

"What ehh… What are you doing?"

"Making an alarm out of your censor." Mike explained without taking his eyes of the wire he had pulled out.

"Can you do that?" Sean asked surprised.

"Yep. I found a smoke detector in your garage and I think if I bypass the power, I can make the alarm sound when the lights turn on."

"Okay..." Sean said not understanding it fully. "So if someone triggers the censor, both the lights and the alarm will go on at the same time?"

"Yes, that's what I'm hoping for."

"All right, cool." Sean scratched his head. He didn't know much about electricity, but Mike knew a lot. He had been a tech-freak ever since highschool. But it was first until now Mike had been putting his skills to good use.

"So where have you placed the smoke detector?" Sean asked and looked around, trying to find it.

"It's placed on the inside of the front door. That's the furthest it will go. The wire isn't longer." Mike explained.

"But we will be able to hear it right?"

"Well, it's not very loud, but I think it's loud enough to be heard from upstairs for example."

"Guess that will do."

Mike then jumped down from the chair.

"All done." He said and looked over at Sean. "Let's see if it works."

He stepped out in front of the censor and started waving his arms at it.

Nothing happened. Not even the lights turned on.

"Argh, of course." He said and slapped his forehead. "The censor won't turn on in daylight. We have to wait till it gets dark."

"Well that sucks." Sean said and looked disappointed. "Isn't there some other way to do it?"

"Yeah, I guess we can try to turn on the lights manually and see if the alarm sounds. But that doesn't prove that it will go off when the censor is activated."

"Heck, we'll try it anyways." Sean said and walked to the front door, where the switch was. He pressed it.

Suddenly a bright and loud noise sounded. It was so agitating that it forced Sean to cover his ears.

"Argh! How do I turn this thing off?" Sean yelled over the screeching noise.

Mike just grinned and ran to him. He quickly found the smoke detector besides the door and pressed a button on it.

"You just press this button here." He said and pointed at it.

"Not very loud!" Sean asked and rubbed his ears.

"Well that's because you're standing so close to it." Mike grinned again and switched off the lights outside.

Pat and Sabrina, who had been sitting in the kitchen resting, suddenly came running.

"What's going on out here!" Sabrina asked, looking like one big question mark. Pat was looking pretty much the same.

"Nothin'. Just testing our new alarm system." Mike said and chuckled.

"What the f… You almost gave me a heart attack, man!" Pat said and frowned at Mike. "Plus I've got a major headache!"

"Didn't mean to freak you out, man. I'm sorry."

Sabrina looked over at Sean who was rolling his eyes at them.

"Are you guys just gonna stand there nagging or are you gonna explain what this alarm thing is for?" She asked straight out.

"Yeah yeah, of course. Follow me." Mike said and waved her and Pat outside.

"I'm gonna take care of some stuff inside." Sean said to Mike. He responded with a light nod.

Sean went up the stairs heading for his room. He walked to his closet and was about to open it, but stopped. He didn't like what he was about to do. But it was necessary in the situation they were in. It had to be done.

He opened the closet stepped into it. He then pressed the four digit code and unlocked his gun safe.

xxxxxxxxxxx

When Sean came back downstairs, his friends were standing by the kitchen table, talking. But they all stopped when they saw what he was carrying.

He had the shotgun in one hand and a black RPD bag in the other. A bag usually carrying tactical gear for the precincts special forces. But Pat knew what was in it. All of Sean's "toys".

Sean placed the bag on the table along with the shotgun. No one said anything. Until he broke the silence himself.

"I know it seems a little rash, but I just think that we should prepare for the worst." Sean stated and looked around at his friends. "Okay?"

Pat lifted up the Benelli and checked it out.

"Now, I'm not saying that we should carry them around or anything. We should only use them at extreme emergencies." He looked across their faces again. "So we need to find some places to put them. Some places with quick and easy access."

It was clear that Pat hadn't got anything against it. He wasn't really listening, in fact he was checking out the shotgun. But Mike didn't seem to like the idea and Sabrina didn't either.

"I can't fire a gun at another person. I just can't." Mike said with a skeptic look.

"I don't think I'm capable of it either." Sean admitted. "But if those things somehow get in here, then we have to defend ourselves."

"I think it's a good idea." Pat said, still playing with the shotgun. "You know, just in case." He said and looked up at Mike.

Then Sabrina stepped towards the table, grabbed the bag and opened it. She started taking out each gun and every other piece of equipment. On the table were now a 9mm Beretta, a .45 Colt M1911, some spares mags and a dot sight withamount for the Colt.

Sabrina picked up the 9mm and looked at it for awhile. Then she pushed out the mag to check if it was empty. Pushing it back in, she went for the slide and pulled it back. She looked in the chamber to see if it was loaded. She knew it wasn't, but she had to see. When she saw that it was clear, she let slide go forward again. Then she uncocked it by holding back the cock with her thumb and then pressing the trigger.

"This one is mine." She said and held it up.

The guys just stood there with their mouths wide open.

"I don't know about you guys, but I think that was kinda hot." Pat said and put down the shotgun gently.

Normally a comment like that would have made her smile, but she was being deadly serious about the whole situation. She couldn't get herself to smile at all.

"Wait a second. I've got two more in my bag." Pat said and went to go look for it.

Some time later he returned with a silver 9mm Beretta and what Sean recognized as a Smith&Wesson model 360 Airlite. Pat handed the revolver to Sean, who immediately pushed out the cylinder and emptied the cartridges out on the table.

Pat had removed the mag from the Beretta and pulled back the slide, so that the chambered bullet came flying out. He then caught it in midair just as he had done it last night.

"Is that something they teach you at the police academy?" Sean asked with a smirk.

"No not really. I just like doing it all the time." He answered kind of dull.

They collected all the guns at the table and Sean started evaluating what they had.

"So we got… two 9mm, a .45 cal., a .357 cal., if I'm correct..?"

"Yes." Pat nodded.

"… and a 12 gauge shotgun." Sean finished.

"Don't you think this is all too much, Sean? I mean, they're just human beings who had gotten ill by that disease." Mike said.

"Trust me when I say this, Mike. Those "things" are NOT human."

"What do you mean "not human"?"

"Well, for starters Sabrina broke that guys ribs at such a degree, that the ribs would have punctured several vital organs."

"No one would survive internal bleedings for so long." Sabrina stated.

"Besides, I'm not even sure this guy was alive when he attacked me."

"Whaa..?"

"I don't know how, but it was like he was rotting. Decomposing…" Sean described and swallowed hard. "Like he was already dead or something."

"What? You mean like a "zombie"?" Pat joked.

"Yeah, I guess that's the most… suitable word for it."

Pat stopped chuckling.

"You're serious?"

"Yes, man. I'm not fucking kiddin you! That guy was rotting before my freakin eyes!"

Mike finally got it. He knew that Sean would never say such things without being serious about it. And when Sean spoke in that tone, there was no way he could be mistaken. He had to trust his decision.

"All right. I'm in." He said. "But the revolver is mine!"


	8. Safest Place to Be

Courage is fear that has said its prayers.

**Dorothy Bernard**

**Chapter 8**

_Safest Place to Be_

It was dark outside. Really dark. No moon lighting up the streets this time. The street lights had also gone black. Apparently they weren't getting any power. So Sean could hardly see anything out there, as he sat in his panorama window. The only thing he could see was a weak orange kind of light glowing in downtown.

"Downtown's on fire…" He said with a lowered voice while he tied his shoes. They had to wear shoes for quick escape.

Sabrina sat up from the bed and walked up to him.

"Yeah, they're getting closer." She whispered to him.

Sean didn't take his eyes off the horrible sight. But instead he silently opened the window. He was expecting a cold breeze slipping in, but the air outside was pretty warm. He opened the window wide open and listened. Distant crashes and screams could be heard through the darkness. An hour ago those sounds couldn't be heard. But now they could clearly. They were really getting closer.

Sean tightened his grip around the .45 in his hand. He closed the window, not wanting to hear anymore terrifying screams. Resting his head on the pane, he rubbed his eyes.

"You should probably try to get some sleep." Sabrina said to him.

Sean turned his head away from the window and looked at her. They had turned all lights off in the house, to avoid attracting anyone. So he could vaguely see her eyes in the dark.

"Can't sleep." He said and looked out the window again. "Can't see how anyone can in this situation."

"Guess you're right. I can't sleep either."

"How 'bout the brothers?"

"Don't know. But can't imagine their asleep."

Sean still didn't take his eyes away from the window. But Sabrina kept on watching him. He looked tense, but in a calm kind of way. He seemed focused. But she knew that he was struggling on the inside. Deep inside, he was scared as hell. And truth to be told, so was she. But she had to stay focused. She had to clear her mind, so she could help her friends out of this. Just as they should do, so they could help her. No one was going to get hurt tonight. She wouldn't let that happen.

"Hey, how's your arm?"

Sean turned his head and frowned, like he didn't know what she meant.

"Oh, yeah." He remembered and rolled up his sleeve. "Haven't felt a thing in a long time. It doesn't hurt anymore."

"Let me see it." She said and started taking off his bandage. "We have to change it anyways."

When she had removed it all, she looked at the bite.

"I can't see it properly. We need some light." She said and went for the switch.

She turned it on, but both she and Sean had to cover their eyes. They had to adjust to the light first.

"Now, let me take a look."

She looked at the wound again.

"That's weird." She said and frowned. "It looks like the wound has got smaller since the last time I checked it."

She found the bandage and examined it.

"No blood on the bandage either."

Sean looked puzzled at her.

"What does that mean?" He asked.

"I guess my eyes had been playing me when I put the bandage on you. Or you heal really fast."

"Well, I have a high metabolism. Maybe that has something to do with it."

"Maybe, but I have never seen anything like this." She said and shook her head. "But then again, I work at an animal hospital. I don't know that much about human metabolisms."

Sean knew when she was lying. He could see it in her eyes.

"There's something wrong with me, right?" He said and looked down.

She sighed.

"Yeah, I think. I mean, that's just not normal for a person to regenerate so fast."

"Do you think it has anything to do with me being infected?"

"Yes, that's the only way to explain it."

Sean thought about what his father had told him. He decided to tell Sabrina about it.

"Last time I talked to my dad, he told me that I didn't have to worry about being bitten." He said and looked at her. "I didn't know what he was talking about at the time, but now I'm getting pretty sure that this is somehow connected to what he said."

xxxxxxxxxxx

"Man, this is aggravating." Pat said to his brother, who was sitting on the couch.

"Tell me about it." Mike answered.

"Hate sitting here, not being able to do anything at all." Pat sighed. "I should be at the precinct helping out."

"Like hell you shouldn't! If you were in there, you would probably be dead by now."

"Of course not. I'm sure they have everything under absolute control."

"Riiight." Mike said with a sarcastic tone and turned away.

Suddenly the lights by the garage turned on and the alarm went off. Pat flew out of the chair with the shotgun in his arms, and started running towards the front door. Mike followed right behind him.

"Hope it's just a cat again." Mike said. The alarm had been going on and off a couple of times. And every time it had been a cat setting it off.

Mike quickly turned off the alarm, as Pat looked out the window in the door.

"Ehmm, I would say that it's a little bit bigger than a cat this time…"

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sean jumped at the sound of the alarm going on.

"Shit!" He said and looked out the window.

The light from the garage lamp lit up the entire driveway in front of the house. So he could see everything. But he didn't want to see what he saw. A group of about 15 of those undead creatures was staggering along the street. They were dragging their feet over the asphalt until the alarm had gone off. Then they had all stopped and slowly turned against the house. Sean froze. One of those things had been more than a match for him. And now he and his friends had to fight off a whole group of them.

The alarm suddenly stopped, and Sean ran to the stairs.

"Are you guys seeing this!" He yelled down to Mike and Pat.

"Yeah, how many are there? Can't see it from down here." Pat answered.

"About a dozen, I think." Sean said.

"Shit!" Pat yelled.

"I'm coming down." Sean yelled to them. "Sabrina, you stay here okay?"

She nodded.

"Be careful, okay?" She said to him.

"I will." Sean answered and started running down the stairs with his gun at the ready.

As soon as Sean had reached the first floor, he saw that the brothers had already placed the bookshelf in front of the front door. Then he could hear someone banging at it.

"It's them." Mike said getting a little scared. "What are we gonna do, man?"

The bookshelf tilted back and forth and the door looked like it was ready to come off. Those guys were really putting their weight into it.

"We gotta barricade that door with something heavy." Pat said.

Sean looked around.

"The couch!" Sean said and pointed at it. "Give me a hand."

Sean grabbed hold of one end and Pat the other. Mike thought that the couch weren't heavy enough to hold the door, but judging by the look on Sean's face he decided it was good enough. Sean's face was actually getting all red. Pat wasn't having any trouble with it, because he wasn't as "tiny" as Sean or Mike.

"Are you okay, Sean?" Pat asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He answered, forcing a smile.

The finally reached the door and Sean put down the couch with a thump. Pat then shoved it up to the bookshelf.

"There. That should hold them back for awhile." Pat said and wiped his hands clean of dust.

Suddenly they heard the sound of a window getting smashed from somewhere in the kitchen. Sean ran to check it out.

"Damn, they're already in here!" He yelled, as he saw a zombie trying to crawl through the broken window.

He raised his gun.

_He's already dead. He's already dead. He's already…_

BOOM!

The sound of the .45 being fired was overwhelming and really hurt Sean's ears, but he didn't care. He had hit the zombie right between its eyes and it fell out of sight immediately.

Pat and Mike came running.

"What happened?" Pat asked.

"I… shot him…" Sean said still starring out the window. "I killed him. Or at least I think I did."

They looked out the window. A new face suddenly appeared and Sean started shooting again, but this time he missed.

"Fuck! We've got to get upstairs now!" He said.

And in that instant they all started running. They could already hear more glass breaking.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"What's going on?" Sabrina said when they met her upstairs.

"They're inside!" Mike shouted out.

"They are what?" She shouted, but was cut short before she could get an answer.

"Come on; start throwing some furniture down the stairs. We need to block their way up here." Sean said and started off by throwing a chair down there. It splintered as it hit the floor. They had predicted this situation, so they had already placed a lot of chairs and tables in the hallway on the second floor.

Pat put down the shotgun and grabbed two chairs. He threw them both down the stairs as well as Sean had done. Then a zombie appeared at the bottom of it. But Mike and Sabrina had already slung a big armchair down its way. It wasn't really their intention to hit it, but there was a horrible crack when the chair reached the first floor. They couldn't tell if it was wood or bones that had made the sound.

"We're out of furniture." Pat said throwing down the last table. Now they were unable to see the first floor.

"Don't think they'll get through that anytime soon." Sabrina stated.

"No, but if they do we're gonna have to shoot them." Pat said. "I suggest we take shifts. When the first team runs out of ammo, the second team will take their place and so on."

"Sounds like a plan." Sean said and nodded. "But I suggest you use your Beretta, Pat. We don't have a lot of ammo for the shotgun."

"Allright." He answered and pulled out the Beretta from the back of his pants.

They all found their guns and checked them. Sean took out his mag and found the ammo box with the .45 ACP's. He had also carried all of the ammunition upstairs along with some food; they had put in some backpacks. They had also packed all of the necessary medical supplies there was in the house.

Sean put two bullets in the mag and pushed it inside the gun again.

From downstairs a lot of noises could be heard. The zombies were struggling to get through the pile of chairs.

"What are we gonna do if they get up here?" Mike asked with a shaky voice.

"Then we'll haul ass." Sean said. "We're gonna lock ourselves inside my room, take the bags we've been packing and go through the hatch under my bed, that leads to the garage. We've been through this once already, Mike."

"Yeah, sorry. I'm just a little confused right now." Mike apologized. "So who will take the first shift?"

"You and Sean are up." Pat said. He thought that it was best to pair one good shooter with one bad shooter. And since he and Sean were the only ones with proper shooting abilities, they'd naturally got to be on separate teams.

All of a sudden a loud crack came from the pile of chairs. The chairs started falling down from the top of the pile and the first zombie came crawling through the opening.

"Safeties off, guys!" Pat shouted.


	9. Hell Fire

**AN: Sorry for taking so long to update. I've just been really busy lately.  
I was actually going to wait with posting this chapter until late this week, but I pulled myself together to finish it a little earlier.  
Again I want to thank those who have reviewed my story so far, especially Escape the Shadows, Seifer Almasy 1775, Tinkies and Dead-Hunter who have been really helpful so far.  
I just wish that there were more of the readers that took the time to review. It don't have to be a long well-written review, I'm just asking you to leave a tiny little one. And it would be nice if you could mention what you like or what you don't like about my story. Then I know what to do and what not to do.****  
Also I would like to know what you think of the quotes. Is it stupid or is it a good idea?**

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do.  
There can be no courage unless you're scared.

**Eddie Rickenbacker**  
_US WWI aviator & businessman (1890 - 1973)_

**Chapter 9**

_Hell Fire_

"Fire!" Pat yelled to Sean and Mike.

Mike aimed at the zombie and squeezed the trigger of the .357 revolver. It went off with a loud blunt bang. But when he looked, he noticed that he hadn't hit anything. The kickback was massive and it had caught him off guard.

Then Sean fired his gun and it was a hit. The bullet hit the zombies shoulder, but it didn't seem to care. That was when the next zombie appeared. Mike cocked his gun and fired at it. This time he hit it in the chest and it fell backwards.

More and more zombies kept appearing, and there wasn't much of the barricade left. Mike and Sean just kept on firing, but the zombies just wouldn't fall.

"This isn't working!" Sean yelled to Pat, who was growing impatient.

"Here, let me!" He said and both Mike and Sean stepped aside. They needed to reload anyways.

Pat took his time to aim and then shot a bullet right in the nearest zombie's heart. It twitched a little, but continued to walk forward. Pat fired again and again, but with the same result. Now it had almost reached the top and when it did, he raised his right leg and kicked the zombie as hard as he could. It flew backwards and took at least three more with it.

Sean had done reloading his .45 and stepped out to help Pat. But then a sharp smell of something burnthit him.

"Do you guys smell that?" He asked.

That was when a burning zombie appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh my god!" Sabrina said and covered her mouth.

Its entire upper body was lit in flames, leaving a disgusting smell of burnt skin. It started moving slowly up the stairs.

"Why won't they just fucking die?" Pat yelled and started firing at it.

Sean joined him and so did Mike. But first after about 16 shots it fell into the pile of chairs. In the mean time though, it had lit some of the other zombies, who was slowly rising again. They all fired their last bullets at them and then started heading for Sean's room. But they had forgot the shotgun in the hallway, so Sean ran back to get it. On his way he saw that almost the entire staircase was on fire, and the zombies started to succumb to the flames.

It was a relief to see that the zombies had fallen, but the fire would spread fast. Sean remembered that fire spreads upwards in seconds, sideways in minutes and downwards in hours. So they had to leave the house immediately or they would succumb to the flaming inferno too. He ran back with the Benelli in his arms and burst through the door to his room.

"We've gotta go!" He said and threw the shotgun on the bed. "The house is on fire."

"Shit!" Mike said and put both hands on his head. "Can't we put it out?"

"No, we can't! It's spreading too fast." Sean said and started to throw some stuff in his bag.

"Sean's right." Pat said and picked up one of the backpacks. "In a couple of minutes the entire house might be on fire!"

"Fuck!" Mike said.

Sean swung the backpack over his shoulder and grabbed hold of his bed.

"Pat! Give me a hand!" He said.

Pat grabbed hold also and started lifting the bed. Then they moved it aside and it revealed a hatch in the floor. Sean didn't really know why there was a hatch beneath his bed. It had been there when his parents and he moved in many years ago.

They put down the bed and Sean walked over to the hatch. He found the handle and pulled it, but instead of the satisfying feeling of it opening, the hatch just didn't move.

"No, no, no…" He said to himself pulling the handle again, this time a lot harder. So hard that it hurt his fingers.

"What's the matter?" Sabrina asked. "Is it stuck?"

But Sean didn't listen; his mind was only on one thing. That damned hatch.

He pulled as hard as he could, hurting his hands, arms and back. But the more he pulled, the colder the chill became. It was like ice cold water running down his spine as he realized that he couldn't get it open. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey man, stop!" Pat said to him. "You're gonna pull your arms off if you continue like that."

Sean exhausted from using all his strength on that hatch, slammed his fist at it as an act of frustration.

"Fuck!" He yelled so loud that it shocked the others. He stood up and started walking around frantically, pulling his hair.

Pat tried to pull the hatch too, but with the same luck as Sean. It was really stuck. They were not getting out that way, that was for sure.

"How could I be so stupid!" Sean said to himself. "I've never actually used it before; I've always assumed that it worked!"

"Damn it, Sean!" Mike said, also getting frustrated. "We were counting on that hatch!"

"Don't you think I know that?" Sean sneered at him.

"Now there's no way out but the windows." Sabrina said.

"Fuck the windows! I'm not going out there!" Mike said.

Sean ignored the others arguments, and started thinking.

"Sabrina's right! Someone needs to go down there, get inside the garage and open the garage door." Sean said firmly. "Out through the windows and through the front door."

Everyone went quiet for a second. They all molded it over.

"All right…" Pat said, ready to sacrifice himself for his friends at any time. "I'll do it."

Of course Sean wasn't going to let his friend do it, because he had already decided to go himself.

"No, I'm going." Sean said, and Pat frowned. "I've already been bitten. Don't want to risk any of you getting bit too."

As much as Pat wanted to go, he knew that Sean was right. It would be dumb to risk them getting infected too.

"Are you sure?" Pat asked one last time.

"Yes, I'm certain."

"All right." Pat said and handed him the shotgun from the bed.

Sabrina wasn't okay with this at all, but they had no time to think. He had to go now, so she made it brief. She walked up to him and hugged him.

"Please stay." She whispered to him, trying not to weep.

"I'm gonna be all right." He comforted her.

She didn't say anything; she just kissed him and let him go. Sean then walked up to the window and opened it.

"We're gonna cover you from up here." Pat said to him, padding him on his shoulder.

Sean crawled through the window, stepped out on the thatches and slid down to the gutter. Then he turned around to look at his friends, who were standing in the window.

"I'll se you in five or less." He said like he was just going out to buy groceries or something. He then turned back and leaned forward. There were no zombies down there, so he jumped.

He landed with a thump and fell to the side, but he got up real quick to look around. Ignoring the pain in his feet from the landing, he went for the front door. He flipped off the safety and moved inside with the shotgun at the ready.

He had three rooms to go through. The entrance hall, the kitchen and then the hallway. Three rooms… but from where he stood that seemed like far away.

The entrance was clear, so he rushed on to the kitchen. The smoke ran over his head, across the ceiling. It stung his eyes, making them run. He couldn't cover his mouth though, because he had to use both hands for the shotgun.

His eyes were getting blurry, so he had to stop to wipe the tears away from his eyes. But as soon as he removed his hand from his face, he saw something in the corner of his vision. He turned quickly to see what it was, but the he couldn't see anything there. So he turned back, only to find a zombie standing right in front of him.

It lunged at him before he even got the chance to raise his weapon. But this time he was quicker than earlier. He quickly ducked under its raised arms and moved behind it. He then aimed the shotgun at its back and pulled the trigger.

The zombie fell forward, while its torso was ripped open by the hails.

Sean pulled the handguard back and the empty shell flew out, bouncing when it hit the floor. Pulling the guard forward again, he turned around and continued moving to the garage.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Upstairs they were waiting.

Sabrina sat in the bed with her hands folded. She wasn't religious or anything, but she did that everytime she got scared or worried. It somehow comforted her.

Mike was sitting next to her, staring at the floor. Pat on the other hand was getting ready to go. He took his backpack and Sean's and started moving to the window. That was when he noticed the smoke coming from under the door.

"Shit." He just said and turned to Mike and Sabrina. "We're going out the window. Rightnow."

They looked up, and saw the smoke. Without saying anything they just took their gear and went to Pat.

He crawled out the window as the first one and landed perfectly on the ground. Then Mike threw the remaining backpacks down to him.

"You're next, Sabrina." Mike said and forced a smile. He helped her through the window and down to the gutter. Then she jumped down to Pat who helped her land properly.

Mike stepped up in the window and was just about crawl out, when the door suddenly exploded into the room, engulfing it in flames. It startled Mike in such a degree that he fell forwards down the roof. Pat saw it just in time to catch him in mid air. But the weight of his brother made even a big guy like him fall to the ground.

"Got you, bro." He grinned at him and got up, helping him to his feet.

"Thanks, man." Mike said and wiped the dirt of his pants.

Pat quickly found his 9mm and checked the surroundings, but suddenly the garage door started opening. As it slid open they could see someone's feet in there, and as it went higher it revealed Sean standing there crying. Or that was what it looked like.

Sabrina ran to him and hugged him again. Even though it hadn't been more than four and a half minutes since they last saw each other.

"Don't ever leave me again." She said to him as he held her with only one arm.

"I promise…" He said and kissed her forehead.

Mike and Patrick took the backpacks and the guns and put them in the trunk. Sean also put the shotgun there. Pat looked at Sean's eyes, which were all red from the smoke.

"Are you okay to drive?" He asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He answered and coughed a few times. "Let's just get the hell out of here."

His friends entered the car, but Sean waited for awhile.

_Goodbye_. He thought giving his childhood home his last regards. Then he entered his Honda Civic. Sean started the engine and the headlights went on. That revealed a couple of zombies heading towards the garage.

"Hurry!" Mike yelled from the backseat.

Sean released the emergency brake, put it in first gear, stepped on the speeder and removed his foot from the clutch. The tires screeched and the car rushed forward. He drove directly into one of the zombies. He could hear its legs crack, when it hit the bumper. It then fell aside and out of the way.

He turned hard to the right when he reached the pavement, and the tires screeched again. He then floored the clutch, put it in second gear and released it again while flooring the speeder. The car flew up the road and far away from the house.

The streetlamps were still out, but the cars headlights kept the road lit up. There wasn't much to see though. Occasionally they would spot a zombie or two, but no people were around.

"So where to?" Sean asked breaking the silence.

"Anywhere but this place." Sabrina said.

"Let us see if it's possible to get out of the city first, okay?" Pat said.

"All right." Sean answered, concentrating on the road ahead.

But after about fifteen minutes of driving, they had met a dead end.

"Damn! A roadblock." Sean cursed and slammed his fist to the steering wheel. He and Pat, who was sitting on the front seat, got out to take a closer look.

There were two police cars parked, and there were a couple of those signs placed in front of them.

"There's no way we can get around that." Pat said and looked at Sean. "Guess we're not getting out this way."

"That's the only exit around here. The next one is miles from here." Sean said shaking his head.

"We gotta go through downtown to get there. And that's going to be difficult, because of all the roadblocks." Pat said and frowned.

"Or we could take the highway." Sean said.

"That's not an option. The highways are closed." Pat said and shook his head.

"How do you know that?" Sean asked.

"Heard it in the news yesterday."

"Crap." Mike said as he stepped out of the car too. "Downtown is a mess. We can't go there!"

"It's our only chance, Mike." Sean said. "There is no other way."

"We can't get through this roadblock, bro. And it's not safe to travel on foot, so that's not an option either." Pat stated.

"Can't we just smash through it?" Mike asked.

"With what? The car?" Sean said and frowned at him. "You can't be serious. That's gonna total it!"

Mike looked down, embarrassed for even asking such a dumb question.

"Yeah sorry, wasn't thinking…"

Sean shook his head lightly and then looked inside the car to see what ever happened to Sabrina, since she hadn't stepped out of the car. She was sitting between the front seats trying to reach the radio. She turned it on, when she reached the button.

Sean couldn't hear if they were getting any transmission, so he stepped inside the car. But all he could hear was static.

"Try one of the other channels." Sean said to her. She then tried another button.

"Still static…" She said still trying.

Suddenly they hit a channel that didn't have static. But it was all silent.

"Fuck it." Mike said. "Just turn it off…"

Sabrina was just about to when Sean rushed over and stopped her.

"NO! Stop, wait!" Sean said and she removed her hand from the stereo. "Listen…"

They listened carefully for awhile. Someone was talking in the other end, but it was too low to hear. Pat stepped up to the car to listen too. Sean then increased the volume till it was loud enough to hear.

"_If any one can hear me… seek to RCFM radio station… we are about 20 people who have barricaded ourselves inside… have plenty of guns… come if you want to live… the address is 147 Harvey Blvd 3rd floor…"_

Then the transmission started over again, so Sean turned the radio off. There were some seconds of silence as Sean looked around to see his friend's reactions to this.

"You guys wanna check this out?" He asked them.

"Why not?" Pat said. "It's on the way anyways."

Everyone nodded agreeing with Pat.

"But I suggest we keep our guns at the ready, even when we are driving." Sean said and stepped out of the car so he stood right in front of Pat. "I think it's gonna be one hell of a ride."

That was when Sean spotted something over Pat's shoulder. It was a zombie that was coming up from behind him.

"PAT! Behind you!" Sean yelled and pointed towards the staggering undead.

Pat quickly turned around swinging his elbow back trying to hit it, and luckily he did. The zombie got hit in its right cheek, sending it staggering to the side. When it came to its senses, then Pat raised his hand, clenched his large fist as hard as he could and slammed it right into the zombie's face.

A loud crack could be heard from its head, and it fell backwards landing on its back. Pat shook his hand a couple of times and then massaged his knuckles. He looked back at the others who were glaring at him with open mouths.

"I-is he dead?" Sean said and walked over to Pat.

"Dead enough." He grunted, rubbing his elbow too as he walked past Sean.

"Uhmm, okay." Sean said looking at the others who were still glaring at Pat. "Let's go get the guns in the back."

At that everyone stepped out of the car and grabbed their backpacks and guns from the trunk. As Sean, Mike and Sabrina did that, Pat was keeping an eye out for other dangers. Mike and Sabrina quickly grabbed their stuff and hurried back inside the car. But Sean waited for Pat.

After some time he picked up both their stuff and handed Pat's gear to him.

"That was quite a punch you threw back there." Sean said to him. "Think you broke his neck or somethin'."

"Yeah, had to make sure he would stay down."

"He sure did allright!" Sean said and nodded. Pat smirked.

"It isn't the first time I've thrown a punch like that." Pat said and relieved Sean of the backpack he was holding out. "Broke a guy's jaw in a bar fight a couple of years back."

"Hmm…" Sean said, lifting his eyebrows while he nodded.

"Fuck it. Let's just go to that radio station." Pat said and swung the backpack over his shoulder.

"Yeah." Sean said and went inside the car, where Mike and Sabrina were waiting for them.

They felt the trunk being slammed closed, and Pat entered the car moments after with the shotgun in his hands.

"Better keep this close." He said and held it up.

"You best buckle up, guys." Sean told his friends. "Think it's gonna be one hell of a ride."

They all nodded and fastened their seatbelts almost simultaneously.


	10. Highway to Hell

**AN: Nice to see that people like the quotes. So I'm going to keep on finding new ones.  
This chapter didn't take me very long to write. Only 5 days. Usually it takes me weeks to get a chapter done. I don't know why this was written so fast. I haven't spent more time writting than I usually do.  
But anyway, enjoy. Hope you like it.**

If you don't risk anything you risk even more.

**Erica Jong**

**Chapter 10**

_Highway to Hell_

Smoke rose from the center of the city, Sean noticed as they slowly got closer. He wasn't driving very fast. The surroundings wouldn't let him. There were cars "parked" everywhere and there was occasionally a group of zombies here and there. He felt like just driving them over, but if he hit one of them, they would might as well go through the windshield and land on their laps. So he had to dodge everything that got in their way.

Pat wasn't making it any better either. He kept on yelling things like; "Watch out!" "Drive, drive!" "Shit!" and "Brake for the love of god!" It was really getting on his nerves. But that was typical Pat. He couldn't relax if it was someone else than him there were driving. He had to be in control constantly.

Sean's grip around the wheel got tighter everytime Pat yelled at him. And usually when something is bugging you, everything tends to get annoying. Especially Sean's eyes; they were still irritated from the high amount of smoke he had been exposed to earlier. So he kept on scratching them, which only made it worse and him even angrier.

It might have been that that had made the water in the cup flow over. Because of all the stress and the fact that he was scared as hell, he had had just about enough.

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" He yelled as much as he could, as he turned his head to Pat. Normally people didn't dare to yell at a guy at Pat's size, but Sean wasn't scared of him because he knew him. And that he was so angry that he didn't care.

"I can't THINK with you yelling at me constantly! If you just shut your mouth…" Sean was cut short by Sabrina who screamed shortly.

"Sean! Look out!" She yelled and pointed at something through the windshield.

He had been so busy yelling at Pat that he had forgotten all about watching the road before him. He slowly turned his head. On the road before him was a bike on the pavement. It wasn't much, but it could easily mean the destruction of his tires. Reacting as fast as he could, he turned the wheel to the right. But it was too late. He ran the bike right over. The car bounced a little, but was then brought totally out of control. One of the tires had been torn to pieces and because of Sean's reaction had made him turn the steering wheel, the car started to spin around itself. It was like trying to steer on ice, nothing seemed to work. He tried to brake, but nothing happened. Not until they hit the curb. They were brought to a full stop instantly and it almost seemed like the car lifted itself from two of the wheels.

Sean, who was still holding the steering wheel, just stared out the windshield, breathing heavily. When he finally came to his senses, he started to look around. Pat looked just as spooked as him. He looked back at Sean, and then they both turned to see what happened on the backseat. Sabrina looked fine, a little shocked but fine. Mike on the other hand was lying on the side, though he was still wearing his seatbelt.

"Mike…" Sean tried, but then he saw the crack in the window next to him. Sabrina noticed that too and quickly examined his head. She didn't find anything though, he wasn't bleeding.

"Mike… Mike…" She said to him, while she shook him gently. Nothing happened.

_Please, Mike. Wake up. _Sabrina thought. _I know you're not dead. Come on!_

Like he had read her mind he suddenly sat up, exhaling loudly.

"Oooww! That hurt." He said and felt his head were it was hit.

They all sighed with relief.

"Jesus, Mike. You almost gave us a heart attack." Pat said, looking at him.

"Are you okay?" Sabrina asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Mike removed his hand from his head to look at it. No blood on it.

"Yeah, I guess so." He said and felt his head again. He grimaced when he hit the swelling. "It's just a bump."

"Want me to look at it?" Sabrina asked, offering her help.

"Nah, it's ok. I'm fine." He answered and smiled to her.

Sean turned to face forward again. He looked at the side view-mirror and spotted the flat tire. It was the rear tire that had been mutilated by the bike. It looked pretty bad from what he could see. He sighed and looked over at Pat.

"We need to change that tire before we are overrun by those things out there." Sean said and turned back to look at Mike. "I need your help Mike. Are you up for that?"

"Yeah, sure." He said, though not with enthusiasm.

"All right. Pat you'll cover us." Sean ordered and Pat nodded.

Pat then stepped out of the car as the first, and then came Mike who had to wait till Pat had pushed the seat out of the way. When they both had exited the car, Sean opened the door, but before he could even swing his legs out of his Honda, he got stopped by Sabrina.

"Hey! What about me?" She asked a little offended.

"You should stay in the car. I don't want you to get hurt." Sean said and smiled at her. He then crawled out of the car and slammed the door before she could get a word in.

As much as she appreciated him protecting her, she was more than capable of taking care of herself. And she didn't like to be excluded just because of her being a girl. But she didn't leave the car immediately. Not before Sean opened the door again.

"So you needed my help anyway, huh?" She said condescendingly.

Sean just looked at her, not understanding what she meant by that. So what he was about to say was a little awkward.

"Uhmm, no… I just realized that you'll have to get out of the car, so that we can lift it with the jack…" Sean said and stopped. He just realized something else. "The jack that got blown up along with Pat's car…"

Pat and Mike heard that.

"So we don't have a jack then?" Pat said thinking. He then looked around, trying to spot any other cars nearby.

Sean got the idea and started looking too. There really wasn't a car in sight. Weird to think of it, because they had been dodging cars all night. But they had apparently entered a seemingly carless zone.

Just when Sean was about to give up looking, he spotted a sign in the distance. It was a gas station.

"There!" Sean said out loud and pointed in the direction of the sign. They all turned their heads and saw it.

"A gas station! Yes, good thinking, Sean." Pat said as his eyes lit up. There would definitely be a jack there.

"Okay, me and Mike are gonna stay here while you and Pat get the jack." Sabrina said.

Sean nodded and walked up to the car where she stood.

"Thanks." He said to her. "We will be right back, okay?"

She just mimed a yes and nodded, while Sean crawled inside the car to get his Colt. When he got out again, he saw that Pat already was started to walk slowly down the road.

"Come on, man!" He yelled to him.

Sean then started running to him, not hearing what Sabrina was going to say.

"Be careful." She was about to say, but ended up whispering it.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sean and Pat swiftly made their way to the gas station. Pat was in front with the shotgun at the ready, spotting anything that might be a threat.

As they entered the area they slowed their pace down to a walk. The gas station was practically empty, except for a big tank truck. It had probably been delivering gas to the place, but it didn't seem to have got any further than that. Sean wondered if they had gotten to empty the tank or if it was still containing the fuel. Not like any of it really mattered, but he couldn't help wondering.

"Damn, we're too late." Pat suddenly said with sarcasm when he saw the closed sign in the window. "They're closed."

Sean couldn't help chuckling a little by this. It was good with a little humor in this kind of situations. It helped breaking the constant tension that had been generated the last couple of days.

"Then we better open this place." Sean said and stepped up to the door and pushed it. Pat rolled his eyes at this.

"What did you expect?" He asked him and looked at with lifted eyebrows.

"Just had to make sure. It would be pretty stupid to break the door in if it was open, right?"

"Yeah, okay. Good point." Pat said.

Sean was just about to raise his leg to kick the door in, but then Pat stopped him.

"No wait. Let me do it." Pat said to him and held up the shotgun. Sean wasn't quite following him though.

Pat stepped up to the door, raised the shotgun and smashed in the glass with the stock. He then reached inside and unlocked the door.

"See?" He said and smiled. "Much better."

Sean just shook his head thinking that it could have worked just as well by kicking in the door. Besides, Sean always wanted to kick onein. But he would probably get the chance again sometime.

Pat pushed the door open and they both entered slowly. It was kind of dark in there, but not so dark that they couldn't see. The light from the outside came in through the open door and the windows. When Sean thought about it, he realized that it was actually getting a little bright outside. Daybreak was coming.

_Have we really been up for so long?_ He asked himself. Though he had to admit that he was getting a little tired. But sleep had to wait. Right now he had a job to do.

Before they would start looking for a jack, they had to make sure that the place was secure. So when Pat signaled him to go right, he knew that he meant for him to check for zombies first and wait with the search for a jack.

Sean slowly moved to the aisle furthest to the right and Pat took the left one. He was being very silent as he slowly walked down to the back. It was all clear. He then looked over at Pat who nodded to him signaling that all was clear over there too.

"Good, _now_ we can search for…" Pat said but was suddenly cut short by a bump coming from somewhere in the back of the room. They were both quick to locate the sound and aimed in the direction it came from. It was coming from a door at the right aisle. It had sounded like a broom or another wooden tool falling to the ground. Sean guessed that the door let to a broom closet or something similar. He slowly started to move closer to the door, his heart beating faster the closer he got.

Again there was a sound from in there. This time it sounded like someone or something was moving around in there, making stuff fall to the floor. Sean swallowed hard and moved his left hand down to the doorknob. Aiming his gun at the gap as he slowly started to turn it.

He opened it a little, but he couldn't see anything in the dark. When Sean heard footsteps behind him, he looked over his shoulder only to see that it was Pat that had decided to move closer.

Sean returned to look inside the closet, but by doing so he saw something terrifying just above his hand, which was still holding the doorknob. It was a hand grasping the door. But not just a regular hand. It was red and had long claw-like nails. He quickly pulled his hand away, but as he did that the door got ripped open and revealed who the hand belonged to.

In the opening was now standing a zombie, wearing a trucker's vest and a pair of ripped jeans. Or at least that was what his first thought, but this one was so different from the others they had been struggling with earlier. Those things had been rotting and had been kind of slow and dumb. But this guy was looking a whole lot more terrifying than anything that Sean had ever seen. He seemed a lot more psyched and energetic, since he was breathing really heavy. Almost panting. Like a dog or something.

But worst of all was his skin. It was red. Crimson red. It gave him an angry look, almost like when someone got so angry that their face turned red. Only this guy was red all over.

What also separated him from the rest was that he didn't seem to have any injuries. All the zombies Sean had encountered had had scars and gushing wounds all over. But not this one, instead all his veins was exposed and dark red, giving him a horrific pattern on his already red skin.

They both stood completely still, staring at each other. Or at least Sean thought he stared at him. He couldn't tell from his eyes. They seemed to be glowing white. He couldn't see his pupils at all. Then from deep down its throat it started to growl. Sean's blood froze instantly.

Suddenly it let out a loud angry cry and lunged at him. It caught Sean completely of guard and he wasn't fast enough to dodge it. It hit him like a steam train, practically throwing him to the ground. He hit the floor before he could break the fall, and all air got knocked out of him. While all strength had left his body with the air, he dropped his gun too.

Pat raised the Benelli to fire at the crimson guy, but before he could pull the trigger it had thrown itself over Sean. He could only watch as it started attacking his friend again.

Sean raised his arms to cover his head, but the crimson just grabbed his wrists, boring its long nails into his skin. Stunned by the pain, Sean couldn't hold his arms up anymore.

Holding his arms in a tight grip the crimson zombie went for the kill. It lunged at Sean's neck. What it hadn't expected thoughwas a foot to the side of its head. Pat had kicked it as hard as he could to save Sean.

It didn't fall off him, but it loosened its grip and so Sean pushed it away from himself. It was quickly up on its feet again, but this time Pat had a clear shot. He didn't hesitate for one second to pull the trigger. The crimson zombie got hit right in its chest, making it stagger to the side. But it didn't go down. It just turned back and headed for Sean again. It had apparently chosen him to be its mark, because it didn't seem to care about Pat at all, even though he had just shot it.

There was at least 7 feet between Sean and the crimson this time, so he had more time to react. So he quickly grabbed a heavy metal object on the shelf behind him and slung it at its crimson red head.

He hit it in its left temple and it stopped. It seemed like Sean had got it pretty good, because it started staggering for some time and then fell to the floor, ripping a few things of the shelves in the process.

He just watched it in silence for awhile, but then decided to go check if it was really dead. He slowly approached it. First he kicked it lightly in the stomach. Then again. Still nothing…  
Then he saw the blood that had begun seeping from the temple, where he had hit it.

"I think it's dead." Pat said, looking at the head too. The blood had already formed quite a big pool.

"Yeah, me too." Sean said and wondered what object he had hit it with. He hadn't noticed what it was until he looked at it. In his hand he held a bloodied jack.

"Heh, ironic, huh?" He said and showed it too Pat.

"Hmm, yeah. That is pretty weird." He answered scratching his head. "So much for coincidences."

Sean looked at it again, then he turned around to look at shelve he had found it on. There were nine jacks lying in a row. One was missing from the middle of it. That was the one Sean was carrying.

"Better take another one. This one looks a little nasty." He said and put it neatly back on the shelve between the others. He picked a clean one from the end of the row instead.

"All right, we have what we need. Let's go." Pat said and started moving towards the exit.

Sean followed him, but suddenly realized he had forgotten something.

"Oh, wait." He said and ran back. Pat stopped and waited for him. He ran straight to where the crimson zombie had fallen.

He then picked up his Colt, which was lying right next to shelves with the jacks.

"Never leave home without it." Sean said and waved it around.

"Hehe, yeah. Now let's get back to the others."

Sean walked up to Pat, who was standing in the door with the shotgun over his shoulder. But as he walked past the counter, he noticed someone sitting behind it.

"Pat, wait. Someone's back here." He said.

It was hard to see in the dark, so Sean leaned over the counter to get a closer look. But he would have been better off not knowing what was there. Down on the floor was sitting a man with a revolver in his hand. That wasn't disturbing, but the hole the poor guy had in his temple and the mix of blood and brain matter all over the wall next to him, was indeed disturbing.

"Shit." Sean whispered, feeling his heart getting heavy.

"What?" Pat said, but then saw the poor guy. "Man…"

_Hope I won't have to do that to myself. But then again, it would be better than to turn into a zombie. _Sean thought but pushed it away. He was afraid to go there; after all he had been bitten. He looked at the arm with the wound, but suddenly noticed the dried blood on his wrists. It was the crimson zombie that had bored its claw-like nails into them. But because of the adrenaline that had been pumping through his veins while he fought the crimson, he had forgotten all about it. Sure he felt it when it happened, but right now he didn't. Guess he was still a little high on the adrenaline.

"Crap…" He said to himself. Pat didn't notice it in the dark, so Sean just let it be and started walking. Pat walked with him outside, and then they started slow running.

Sean couldn't wait to get out of the damned city. He had had enough of it all. But as things looked right at the time, it didn't seem like they would be out of there anytime soon.

"What was that "thing" back there, Sean?" Pat suddenly asked as they ran past that tank truck.

"I don't know. But it wasn't a regular zombie, that's for sure." Sean answered.

"It didn't look like zombie at all. More like a guy with a serious anger management problem." Pat said, still running.

Sean wondered why it had looked so different from the other zombies. Maybe it was only some people who turned into one. Or maybe it happened after you'd been a zombie for a longer period of time. No matter which one was the case, Sean had a feeling that it wasn't the only one.

_There might be more of them out there. _Sean thought. But he hoped not.

Now Sean and Pat had reached the corner of the apartment building next to the gas station. As they ran around the corner, they could see his car. It was about 60 yards down the road. What bothered Sean though, was that Mike and Sabrina was nowhere in sight. First he thought they had entered the car again, but as they got nearer he could see that the car was empty.

"Where the hell are they?" Sean said as he started running faster. He had a bad feeling about this.


	11. The Salt Enters the Wounds

Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.

**A. Sachs**

**Chapter 11**

_The Salt Enters the Wounds_

"Sabrina!" Sean yelled as loud as he could while he kept on looking in all directions. Her and Mike were nowhere to be seen.

"Mike!" Pat yelled even higher than Sean had.

"Where the fuck are they? Did they just take off?" Sean asked out loud, though he didn't expect Pat to have an answer. He then threw the jack aside in frustration. It bounced a little when it hit the ground and continued to slide under his car.

Pat followed it all the way, but then saw something inside the car. Or the lack of that something. The backpacks they had left in the car was now gone. All four of them.

"Sean, look!" Pat said and pointed at the car.

Sean turned around and saw it. _Did they take all four backpacks with them?_ He thought. _But that doesn't make any sense._

Trying to make sense of it, he looked closer at the backseat. The guns were missing too. Obviously they had felt it necessary to relocate. _Maybe they have been attacked?_ He thought, but that didn't add up either. That didn't explain why they took four heavy backpacks with them. Normally you would just grab your feet and run. And speaking of running, the most obvious place to run to would have been the gas station, because that was where he and Pat had been. Sean looked at the asphalt around the car. There were no bullet casings lying around either. If there had been a battle there, casings would have been all around.

"I don't think they have fled." Sean said to Pat. "Where ever they are, they are not hiding."

Pat looked puzzled at him.

"What are you saying? That they are safe?"

"Well, maybe not safe, but they certainly left the car intentionally." Sean said, pretty confident in his theory.

_But what could be so important that they would leave the car?_ Sean thought, looking around. He noticed that there was a big apartment building right in front of him. It was the same one he and Pat had been running alongside with on their way to the gas station and back. Actually it reached all the way down to it.

"Of course!" Sean said out loud, the hope filling his heart. "They're in that building."

"What makes you think that?" Pat asked still not getting a word of what he was saying. But Sean never answered his question; he just started running to the entrance which was only a few yards away. Pat just shrugged and followed him inside.

When Sean opened the door, he suddenly realized that Mike and Sabrina could be anywhere in that building. It could take hours to find out where they were.

"Do you mind telling me why you think that they're in here?" Pat said when he finally caught up with Sean. He sighed, but decided to explain.

"I know Sabrina. I'm pretty certain that she heard somebody call for help or something, and then decided to go look."

"Some other survivors?"

"Yeah. And maybe that someone was injured and that's why they took the backpacks." Sean explained.

"It does make sense, I suppose." Par agreed. "But we will still have a problem locating them. This building is huge."

Pat was right. No way were they going to find their friends by checking each and every apartment.

_There must be a better way to find them._ Sean thought.

"Do you have your cell on you?" Pat asked suddenly.

"No, it's in one of the backpacks. Yours?"

"The same. Guess it wasn't going to be that easy."

Sean looked up the stairs which were lit up by a little round lamp on the wall of each floor.

"I've got an idea." He said and quickly ran outside again. He then looked up at the building to find an apartment with the lights on. That could give them a clue of their whereabouts. Unfortunately several lights were on in the windows, so it could be either one of them. Pat walked out to him.

"You know what? If we're not coming to them, then they're coming to us." He said and pointed the shotgun up in the sky.

The gunshot ripped through the silent morning, echoing through the empty street like it was a valley. As the echo died out, Pat chambered another shell. Sean got the idea, and started looking at the apartment windows with the lights on. Nothing…

Pat fired another shot. The echo dying, then silence once again. Then suddenly someone's head appeared in one of the windows. It was Mike. Both Pat and Sean faces lit up, relieved to see him.

"Sean? Pat? Is that you?" He yelled down to them.

"Of course it's us, you fuckhead!" Pat yelled back to him.

"What are you doing up there?" Sean yelled too.

"I'll explain later. You have to get up here! They're coming!" He said and pointed in the direction of the gas station.

"Who's coming..?" Sean was about to say, but it died out in a whisper as he saw what it was Mike was pointing at. A big group of undead was heading right their way, and they were moving pretty fast. They were still about 100 yards away, but with that pace they would reach them in minutes.

"Maybe firing the shotgun wasn't such a great idea." Sean said, looking at Pat as he realized that they had been attracted by the sound. Pat didn't answer this he just started running for the entrance. Forgetting everything about fixing the car, Sean just ran as fast as he could.

The door swung open as Pat pushed it. The door had opened so fast that it got swung right back at Sean when he reached it. As he got hit by it on his right shoulder, he started spinning clockwise as a reflex. It was a trick he had learned while playing football in highschool. The trick was to use the power from a tackle to make a spin, thereby tricking the opponent. This time he didn't mean to trick the door though, but simply to recover from the hit as fast as possible.

As he exited his spin he continued forward up the stairs. Pat was already far ahead of him, turning the next bend of the stairs. Sean remembered how high up the apartment window Mike had been in. It had been the fifth window from the floor. So they had a lot of stairs to climb.

When Sean reached the third floor he noticed all the blood covering the walls and steps. There were some bullet casings here and there too, but no dead bodies. The entire staircase smelled like copper and something rotten, but sweet somehow. Like rotten fruit. The smell wasn't unbearable, but Sean was still disgusted by it considering it was the blood causing the staircase to reek like that.Lucky for him and Pat, the higher floors wasn't as bad as the third. There were a couple of stains, but not much. It was like there had been a fight only at the third floor.

Suddenly Sean caught up with Pat. Not because Sean had been running faster, but simply because Pat had stopped. He would have continued, but the stairs between the fourth and the fifth had been completely blocked. On the stairs were chairs, sofas, bookshelves and all kinds of stuff. Sean even spotted a stereo system complete with speakers and amplifier. It was impossible to try and crawl over it, and to remove it all would take hours.

"Guess somebody had the same idea as us." Sean said, panting a little because of the trip up the stairs.

"Only these guys have been much more organized." Pat said pointing out some of the things in the pile. "See. It hasn't been thrown like we did. This is carefully placed, specifically to make it hard to tear apart. Whoever did this, had time to make sure nobody got past."

"But how the hell did Sabrina and Mike get past it?" Sean asked.

Then all of a sudden a rope ladder fell from the fifth floor, leaving it dangling above the stairs they had just climbed. Sean looked up to see where it came from. It was Sabrina standing there with her arms crossed, looking down at them.

"Need help?" She said grinning.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Pat gave Sean a hand to help him get up from the rope ladder. When Sean got up, Sabrina handed back their weapons, which they had given her on their way up.

"So what is up here, since it made you decide to leave the car?" Pat asked, sounding a little offended by the way his brother and Sabrina had just left them.

"Well, we were standing around the car, seconds after you guyshad left, when suddenly a woman started yelling to us from one of the top floors. She told us that it was safe up here and that she needed help so we went to check it out." Sabrina explained as she showed them to the door. She opened it and showed them inside.

"So there are other survivors up here?" Sean asked.

"Yes, this is their apartment." Sabrina answered, but noticed that Pat and Sean still had a lot of questions. But she waited, because they had someone to meet first.

She showed them through a hallway and let them into a living room. In there was a middle-aged man lying on a madras on the floor. Bowing over him were a woman around the same age as the man. Mike was standing next to them, looking like he wanted to help but couldn't.

"Karen here helped us get up using the ladder, and showed us in here." Sabrina explained and pointed at the middle-aged woman. "It's her husband who seems to be sick. That's why she called for us."

Sean looked at the unconscious man who looked awfully pale and was just barely breathing.

"Is he… you know… infected?" He asked her with a low voice.

"Maybe, I don't know." Sabrina said, shrugging. "We haven't had the time to check him for bites or anything. We've given him a couple of painkillers to ease the pain and the fever."

Sean then moved over to the woman, Karen. He sat down next to her, laying a hand on her shoulder. She was shivering and when she turned her head, Sean saw that she was crying. Her eyes where red from the tears, that were running down her face. Her long dark red hair was untidy and was hanging down in front of her face. Sean couldn't tell exactly how old she was, but he guessed that she was in her late thirties, since her husband looked like a guy in his forties. But then again, it was hard to tell since her face was messy, her husband was ill. That could easily add a couple of years to their age.

Sean then spoke to her in a soft, calming voice. "Karen, my name is Sean." She stopped crying for a second and dried her eyes. "I need to ask you a few questions, okay?"

She nodded, removing some of her hair from her face.

"Tell me what happened to your husband?" He continued with his calm and caring voice. She sniffled a few times.

"We heard some noises from the street and was about to go see, when Lester suddenly collapsed." She exhaled and took a deep breath before continuing. "He had been feeling ill the past few days. We didn't think it was anything serious, and he told me not to worry."

She paused for awhile, and turned to look at her husband, Lester.

"Then I quickly ran to check if there were anyone down on the street there could help me, and luckily there was. Your friends then got up here to help my husband." She said and started sobbing again.

"Okay, I see." Sean said. "This is going to sound weird, but has Lester been bitten by any of those strange monsters?"

She looked over at Sean again.

"No, I don't think so. He made sure that no one could come up here."

"He hasn't been near any of them?" Pat suddenly interrupted.

"I don't know. He was gone a long time, when he built the barricade." She said. "He wouldn't let me help him."

Sean looked up at Pat. They both remembered all the blood there had been on the third floor. It wasn't Lester's blood by the looks of it, but he had definitely been attacked down there.

"We need to check him for scratches or bites." Pat said, sounding a little too cold. Sabrina slapped his arm for that.

"What? No, my husband needs rest." She said, getting defensive all of a sudden.

"Yes, we understand, but your husband might be in danger of being infected." Sabrina said, trying to explain the seriousness of the situation to the poor woman. "We just need to make sure that he isn't"

"Yeah? And what if he is, huh?" She said, getting up from the floor.

They all went silent for awhile. They all knew that he was going to die, because he had all the symptoms. It was just a matter of time before it happened. The problem was to tell her. How do you break it to a woman that her husband is going to die from a killer virus? But they didn't have to. Their silence told everything she needed to know.

"He's going to die, isn't he?" She said with a low voice. Then she sat down again, laying her arms on her dying husband. Sean still couldn't get a word out. There was nothing he could say to make her feel better.

Lester was lying really still. He didn't move at all. That was when Sean noticed that his chest didn't move anymore. It was like he had stopped breathing.

"Lester? Lester!" Karen called out, suddenly making the same awful discovery. She started shaking his arm, then it got more and more violent while tears formed in her eyes. "Lester!"

She stopped shaking him and started hugging him.

"Don't leave me!" She wept, lifting him up while holding him. His head rested on her shoulders.

They all stared at the man with the pale face and white lips. His eyes were closed, but Sean felt like he stared back at him. A tear started falling from Sabrina's eye. She couldn't stand watching it, so she hugged Sean burying her face in his chest. Sean put his arms around her, stroking her back in an attempt to comfort her. Mike had his arms crossed, holding a hand in front of his mouth. He wasn't looking at Karen and her late husband anymore. But Pat was still staring at the dead man.

Karen cried out while the tears were falling from her face like a waterfall.

"You lied to me…" She wept while she rocked back and forth, holding her husband close. "You said you were fine…"

Still staring at Lester's closed eyelids, Sean suddenly saw something. It seemed like his eyes were moving under them.

_No way, he is dead. You must be seeing things. _Sean tried to convince himself, but he was pretty certain of what he had seen.

Then something happened that made his blood freeze in his veins, like he had gotten a shot of liquid nitrogen. The seemingly dead man's eyes suddenly flipped open, revealing two white eyeballs staring right at him. Not that he could see what they looked at, but he felt that the eyes were at him.

Sean stepped back from shock, releasing Sabrina who looked up at him. She saw the terror in his eyes and turned around to see. Lester had started moving his arms, grabbing his wife by the shoulders.

"Lester!" She sniffled, sounding happy in the belief that he had woken up again by miraculous means. He _had_ awoken, but not to be with his wife once again. As she turned to see his face, he tightened his grip around her and lunged for her neck. She screamed as his teeth sunk into her flesh.

Sean finally snapped out of the trance he had been in and ran to rescue Karen. So did Pat and Mike, but Sabrina couldn't move an inch. Sean grabbed Karen by her arms and Pat and Mike grabbed Lester. They started pulling them away from each other, but Lester wasn't about to let go.

Pulling as hard as they could, they finally got them separated. But Lester still had his teeth in his wife, so when Sean pulled together with the brothers, Karen's main artery got ripped out of her neck. The blood sprayed out of her, while she screamed even higher than before. But in fact it was Sabrina who screamed with her. She just stood there, paralyzed by the terrifying display.

Sean fell on his back, Karen landing on top of her. She desperately tried to cover the blood gushing wound with her hand, but the blood kept on flowing out of her.

The brothers threw Lester into the sofa and Mike was fast and pulled out his .357 Magnum.

"He's a fucking zombie!" He yelled, panicking. "Why the hell isn't he dead!"

The Lester zombie slowly started to get up from the sofa, so Mike couldn't hesitate. He aimed and pulled the trigger at its head. The brain matter spattered up the wall behind it, and it fell backwards back into the sofa.

On the floor Sean was fighting to keep Karen alive. He tried to cover the wound with both hands, keeping pressure on it.

"Stay with me, Karen! Stay with me!" He commanded her, but she didn't seem to register anything. She was slowly drifting away. Her eyes became more and more distant as the seconds flew by.

Up till now she had been waving her arms and legs around, but her strength slowly dissipated making her spasms more lazy and slow. Until she suddenly stopped. She had a few convulsions, before she exhaled for the last time. Sean could feel the life run out of her. Her chest sinking, like her lungs were deflating. Her eyes had an empty stare, as if she looked right trough him.

Sean removed his hands from the wound. The blood had stopped its constant flow, only a little blood pulsated out of it. He looked at the carpet around her. She was lying in a pool of her own blood. Sean's hands were covered by blood too. He turned his palms up, while the blood dripped of his fingers.

His friends just watched him in silence, as he got up and went straight for the bathroom.

Sabrina was staring at Karen's dead body. She sat down, in the chair behind her and started crying, covering her face with her hands.

_Why did this happen? They didn't deserve this. No one deserves to die like this. _She thought to herself.

Mike was just as upset as her, but he still found the resources to go and comfort her. He sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

Pat walked over to Karen's dead body. He kept his distance, not wanting to get too close. Her skin was white as paper and her eyes stared at the ceiling. Pat pulled himself together and paid his last respects to her by closing her eyes.

_Rest in piece…_ He thought, but he quickly snapped out of it, when he suddenly heard the sound of glass breaking from the bathroom.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"Aaargh!" Sean yelled as he slammed his fist into the mirror, breaking it into millions of pieces. He just had to get that out. He hated the whole situation, and his anger had been rising since day one. In some ways it was better to get angry, than to get scared. If you get scared, you're close to giving up. But as things were at the moment, giving up was the dumbest thing he could do. Instead he just let loose his frustrations, and after hitting the mirror, he felt a little better.

He turned the sinks tap and washed his hands clean of Karen's blood. The white sink got all red asthe bloodied watertwirled down into the drain.

Sean started thinking about what had just happened in the living room. He hadn't been thinking of why Lester got up again after he had died. He had just reacted to the situation as fast as he could. There had been no time to think.

_It must have been the virus. _Sean thought. _It kills you and then you turn into one of them._

He then thought of his own wounds; the bite mark on his arm, and the scratches on his wrists. He was infected himself, and sooner or later he would turn into a zombie too.  
He swallowed hard at the thought. _I don't want to end up as one of them._

But then he thought of what his father had said, and the fact that he hadn't gotten the symptoms yet. Maybe there was hope. Or maybe his body had been fighting of the virus somehow, delaying the effect.

It was hard for him not to know which. Was he going to die, or live? He would have felt better knowing for certain that he was going to die, because then he could accept it. But he couldn't as long as there was hope.

He loved to believe that he was going to be fine, but why him? Why should he be fine, when everyone else was dying?

Sean dried his hands in a pink towel, which was hanging next to the broken mirror. He then realized what he had just done.

_Great! Seven years of bad luck. Just what I need._ He thought and left the bathroom.

xxxxxxxxxxx

After about 15 minutes of calming each other down, the group decided to stay there for the night. Or rather the day, because the sun was actually up. They all needed to sleep, and get some to eat, so they waited with changing the tire of Sean's car till they had rested.

Of course they didn't stay in Karen and Lester's apartment. They left for the one opposite of it, across the hall. But before they left, they put both bodies on the floor next to each other and covered them both in some sheets. Sean felt bad leaving them as they had been before. And he thought it was the least they could do for them.

As they entered the hallway, Sean opened a window and looked outside to check if his car was still there. He knew it was, but he just had to check. But what he saw down there was more than he had expected. About 30 or 40 zombies were walking around down there, their arms groping in the air. Some were walking around and some just stood still, swaying back and forth like wheat in the wind. It was those zombies that had been chasing Sean and Pat earlier. But apparently they had lost them, since none of them was trying to get inside the apartment building.

"Pat. Come check this out." Sean said and waved Pat over to him. He stuck his head out the window too. "Do you think we need to worry about them?"

"No, don't think they would attempt to get up here. They're not that smart, I think." Pat said as he got back in. "Besides, I don't think they would get through the barricade either."

As Sean and Pat had stopped, Mike and Sabrina continued into their "new" apartment. They followed them inside and closed the door. Sean flipped the lock with a click, before moving further into the place. Luckily no one was home, and there were no "surprises" waiting for them either. No dead people, neither undead nor dead dead.

After going the whole apartment through, they sat down in the living room to relax for a second.

"Does anyone want some to eat?" Sean asked, though he wasn't hungry himself. Well, he felt like starving, but just the thought of eating something after witnessing a husband attempting to eat his wife, made his stomach twirl. His friends just shook their heads, probably feeling the same way as him.

"I think its best we all just got some sleep." Sabrina spoke. It had been awhile since she last said something. Since Lester had opened his eyes, after dying, she hadn't said a word. But now she had finally calmed down. At least enough to speak again.

"I'm taking the couch." Pat said and looked over at Mike, who sat in one of the armchairs. "Mike?"

His brother had already fallen asleep. He had been so tired that just relaxing for two seconds, had made him fall asleep. Like when you come home from a long day at work and you sit down and turn on the TV. Then you usually fall asleep, even though you hadn't felt sleepy earlier.

Sean couldn't help smiling a little. He too looked forward to get some sleep, but he was afraid he couldn't close his eyes. After staying up for so long, he had gotten over-tired, leaving him restless.

"Okay, I'm going to use the bedroom." Sean said and Sabrina followed him. Sean felt a little weird using another person's bed, but then again what was the alternative? The floor? He didn't even consider it at all; the bed was the only option.

As they both placed their backpacks at the floor and took their shoes off, Sabrina realized something.

"How long has it been since your last shot?" She asked Sean, wondering. He thought about it for a second.

"Fuck. You're right. I haven't taken one in ages." He suddenly realized. Normally he would take a shot everytime he started feeling low on blood sugar, but he hadn't felt like that ever since they left his house.

_That's weird. _He thought and opened his backpack to find the insulin.

"Better take one now then." He said and smiled at her.

He pulled out a "pen", removed the cap and lifted up in his T-shirt. He stung himself in the lower abdomen and pushed the button on top of the pen. He held it there for five seconds and then pulled it out. He couldn't feel the big difference. Usually he felt relieved when getting a shot, like when drinking water when you feel really thirsty. But he didn't feel a thing. It was really weird, because he had been burning of a lot of energy all day and night. And still he hadn't needed a shot.

He didn't know where to put the pen. Hehadn't taken the container for the pens with him, so he just put it back into the "pencilhouse" he was keeping the new onesin.

Turning around he noticed that Sabrina already had fallen asleep. She was lying on her side, but she hadn't covered herself with the duvet. She just laid there with her clothes on. He guessed she didn't bother to take it off, or maybe she just felt a little weird sleeping in somebody else's bed.

Sean then wouldn't bother either. He just laid himself next to her, staring up at the ceiling.

Earlier he hadn't felt tired at all, but now as he lay there, his eyes started to get heavy. He tried to fight it for awhile, but he gave up in the end. And so the ceiling went darker and darker, until he finally closed his eyes and fell asleep.


	12. Float up From a Dream

**AN: Once again, sorry for taking so long. I've been working my ass off at work lately, because everybody but me was on vacation, leaving me with all the work. So that hasn't left me with much energy when I come home. But anyways, who cares...?  
There isn't much to say than this chapter is a little short of action, but I assure you that there will be plenty in the next one. But hope you like it anyway...**

Doubt 'til thou canst doubt no more... doubt is thought and thought is life. Systems which end doubt are devices for drugging thought.

**Albert Guerard**

**Chapter 12**

_Float up From a Dream_

Saturday

September 26th, 1998

_Sean was running. _

_He didn't know why, but that didn't seem to bother him. What bothered him though was that there wasn't anything to run on. The ground was missing._

_He looked up and around. There were no walls either, or a ceiling for that matter. Everything was black and empty. But somehow he managed to keep running. __He wasn't floating in the air though. He could feel the ground under his feet, but he just couldn't see it. Then he realized he wasn't wearing shoes. So he could feel the cold floor under him._

_The darkness around him seemed to go on for an eternity. And there was nowhere to run, because there was nothing to see out there. The only thing he could see was himself. Somehow he was well lit, while everything around him was black as coal._

_Suddenly Sean felt something wet under his bare feet, so he stopped. He looked down to see what it was. It was a cold, crimson red liquid. It kind of looked like blood, he thought. _

_Looking closer at it, he saw that it was flowing in the direction he was facing. He started to follow the trail, walking with his feet in it. He could feel that the longer he walked, the stronger the current got and the deeper the river of blood became. __Then he noticed that it was going downhill. He could feel the blood getting slippery under his feet. He couldn't keep his legs steady so he fell on his back, landing in the small river._

_Slowly sliding downwards he noticed that he was picking up pace, and before he knew it he was descending rapidly. __He felt like he was sliding through a water slide, only this wasn't fun because it wasn't water, but someone's blood he was sliding through._

_The slide turned a couple of times, but ended out in a straight line. He could tell because there was a light in the end, and he was heading straight towards it._

_As it grew bigger and bigger, Sean noticed that it was some kind of hole. There was a bright light coming from it, making him unable to see beyond it. __When he reached it, the light swallowed him up and he couldn't feel anything. Not a floor, no wind or gravity. Then suddenly everything went black once again._

_Now he was standing on a staircase. At the top of it was a large steel door, and there were walls following the stairs all the way up._

_A distant voice could be heard. It sounded like a girl calling out for something. Sean started walking up the stairs, because it seemed like the voice came from behind the door._

_As he got closer to it, the voice started to sound familiar. It was Sabrina calling for him._

"_Sean! Sean!" She was yelling. "Help me, Sean!"_

_Then he started running as fast as he could, up the stairs. But suddenly he got grabbed from the sides. Arms were coming out of the brick walls._

_Sean continued, but the arms kept holding him back. And as he pushed forward more and more of them started appearing. But now it was full torsos that were sticking out._

_They were hissing and whispering to him._

"_Stop! Murderer! Don't kill her!" They kept on telling him. But also their voices seemed so familiar._

_Sean looked at their faces in horror and discovered that it was people he knew. His father, his mother, his colleagues and his friends. They had all turned into zombies and were now trying to keep him from getting to the door on top._

"_Don't do it!" Pat told him, as he grabbed Sean's right arm and pulled him to him. His face was disfigured and pale, but Sean could see it was him. Then he saw his eyes. They were glowing white. In fact he couldn't tell whether or not he had eyes. It looked more like he had a flashlight inside his skull, shining through his empty eye sockets._

_Sean turned as he got grabbed by another person. It was Karen who was boring her nails into his arm, tearing through his clothes. Her eyes were glowing in the exact same horrifying way as Pat's and the others eyes._

"_You murderer!" She whispered angrily. "Don't kill her too!"_

_Sean just kept on going, writhing himself free of their strong hands. He ran the last piece of way without getting attacked again._

_When he reached the door, he turned around to see if his loved ones still were there. They were there still, staring at him, no longer trying to reach him. Then they slowly started moving back into the walls, becoming one with them once again._

_Sean turned to the door once again, and pushed it open. He walked out into the open space of a rooftop. The wind was blowing hard and he saw it was dawn. The sun was rising red._

_Next thing he saw was a dark haired woman lying on the ground not far from him. Next to her sat a man in a black uniform. Sean couldn't see who it was, because he was wearing a ski mask._

_The man was holding her head up, but when he saw Sean he put her head down on the ground. The hair fell to the side and Sean could see that it was Sabrina lying there._

_Suddenly the mysterious masked man stood up and pulled out a gun, aiming it at Sabrina's head. Sean wanted to run to him and beat the shit out him, but he couldn't move an inch. It was like he wasn't meant to interfere. Like he was just a bystander, forced to watch something horrible._

_The man looked over at Sean and reached for his ski mask. He then pulled it off and revealed his face to him._

_Sean's blood froze along with his body. What he saw was himself standing there, aiming at his life's love. But it couldn't be, he thought. He would never do such a thing. It was like he was his evil twin standing there._

_His doppelganger just grinned at Sean and started laughing._

"_You killed her!" He suddenly yelled at him with anger, suddenly changing mood completely. He raised the gun again and aimed at her face._

"_NOOOO!" Sean yelled as hard as he could._

_But he couldn't do anything as he pulled the trigger._

_BAM!_

Sean sat up, screaming "no" out into the room. But it faded out as he realized it was just a dream. He looked around, wiping the sweat of his forehead. He was drenched in it. His whole body felt damp and sticky.

Sabrina was still sleeping. Her left arm was resting on his lap. Sean removed it slowly, trying not to wake her, and stepped out of the bed. Actually it was incredible she hadn't woken up by the sound of his loud scream. But Sean's scream hadn't really been that loud. He just thought that because of the effect of the dream. Or rather nightmare.

_What was that about anyway?_ He thought, trying to remember it. He hadn't dreamed that one before. But it seemed like it was somehow connected to the dreams he had had earlier. _That rooftop… It's always the same one. I wonder what that means…_

Then he suddenly remembered what he had seen on that rooftop. Himself shooting Sabrina…

_No… that wasn't me…_ He thought, but then became uncertain. _Or was it?_

He couldn't make any sense of it, and maybe he didn't want to. Whatever the case, he pushed it aside.

_It was just a dream. _He thought, reminding himself how pointless it was to try and analyze it. Besides, he guessed it was pretty normal to have weird dreams in weird situations. After all he had been under a lot of stress lately.

Sean looked out the window. It looked like the sun was setting, because the light was dim and orange. So they had been sleeping from morning to evening again.

_Have we been sleeping for so long? _Sean thought, not believing his eyes. _That's gotta be more than twelve hours…_

He couldn't believe that they had been sleeping for so long. He had tried staying up for this long many times before. In highschool they had sometimes been partying from evening to evening. But this was of course different, because Sean and his friends had been working hard all day and had been very stressed out. That can make any person tired.

_Unless you're on speed. _Sean joked to himself.

The numbness from sleeping was slowly starting to dissipate, so when he got up from the bed, the pain struck him. His stomach was killing him. It hurt so bad. It was because he hadn't been eating anything for almost half a day. He felt like his stomach had started consuming itself.

He placed his hands on his stomach while bending forward.

"Aww, man…" He said silently to himself. "I've better find some to eat."

Moving towards the door, he suddenly felt dizzy and started to stagger. He placed a hand on his head, which were starting to hurt too.

_This can't be normal. _He thought and stopped, leaning against the wall. Then he noticed the wounds on his wrist. They had been scratched heavily and were now red and oozing with pus. That was when he started to feel how much it really itched. Both wrists were itching, as were the bite on his arm. He guessed he had been scratching the wounds in his sleep.

Sean was getting more and more disorientated. His vision was getting blurry, and he couldn't really focus. Not even his thoughts could he keep together. He could only set his mind on one thing: Food!

Just the thought of putting his teeth into a fat juicy steak, made his mouth run. But it also gave him the strength to push himself away from the wall and go for the door.

Though it wasn't very likely that there would be a hot juicy steak waiting for him, he pushed the door open and staggered for the kitchen. He was hoping that the ones, who owned the apartment, had at least left some kind of food behind.

Raising both his arms, he reached for the refrigerator door and opened it. But unfortunately the light inside it lit up nothing. It was empty.

_Oh no… _He thought, starring into the empty space of the fridge. _I must have something…_

Turning away from the kitchen, he looked over at the two brothers. They were still sleeping. Slowly Sean started to move in their direction. His feet shuffling over the carpet. He felt like he was going to die if he didn't eat something soon. And in this state he would eat anything.

Only focused on getting to the brothers, Sean started to moan while he breathed heavily.

"Must… eat..."

xxxxxxxxxxx

"Dude, what the fuck!" Mike yelled when he opened his eyes and saw Sean, sitting on his knees next to him.

Sean had ripped open one of the backpacks that had been on the sofa table, and was now stuffing himself with some of the potato chips they had brought.

He didn't even answer the question, but kept on munching the snacks. He couldn't eat it fast enough.

Mike just glared at his friend who seemed to be acting like some kind of animal. Normally Sean was eating very controlled and refined, but right now it seemed more like he was eating like a pig. He was practically throwing the food into his mouth.

What Sean hadn't thought of was that the chips made him really dry, thus making it harder and harder to swallow it.

Mike noticed it right away and got up, intending to help his friend. He quickly ran to the kitchen, and started looking for a glass. He went through almost every cabin to find them, and of course they were in the last one.

Mike ripped out a glass and turned to the sink. Turning the faucet, he filled the glass with cold water and turned back to Sean. He was surprised to see that he was still trying to eat. Eventually Sean started coughing, because his throat was all dried out.

Mike handed him the glass and watched as he practically drowned himself in the water. Sean coughed and gurgled as the water entered his throat, but he somehow managed to drink it all anyway. He then handed back the glass to Mike, expecting him to refill it.

He didn't object though, so he went back to the kitchen.

Sean's state of mind slowly started to go back to normal, and he stopped stuffing his face for awhile. He could feel that it had helped a lot the get some to eat. But he was still hungry so he continued, but with a less frantic approach.

He opened another bag of snacks and started eating those too. It was a bag of those cheddar cheese balls. Normally he didn't like them very much, but right now they tasted like heaven. He also found a little pack of crackers. They tasted like heaven also, but he was getting a little tired of chewing dry food.

Mike sat down next too him, handing him the second glass of water. Sean drank it slowly and wiped his mouth in his hand.

"Do you mind telling me, what the hell that was all about?" Mike asked him, raising his eyebrows in expectation.

"I'm not sure… But I woke up, feeling incredibly hungry." Sean tried to explain, though he didn't even know what it had been himself. "No, hungry doesn't describe it. More like starving…. It was like I hadn't been eating for a week."

"It sure looked like it." Mike responded, looking a little bit confused. He was hungry himself, but not _that _hungry.

"Anyway, I think I'm okay now. I just need to get a little more to eat." Sean said, and smiled. He could feel the energy coming back to him. Also his wounds had stopped itching, and his head stopped pounding.

He then stood up, trying to get a feel of his balance. It had been way off before, because he had been dizzy and disorientated. He staggered a little and then decided to lean against one of the chairs. He was still feeling a little groggy, but it was definitely getting better.

Sean let go of the chair and started moving towards the kitchen once again. He looked through some drawers and found a pack of toast. After further search, he found some peanut butter too.

Taking a couple of knifes with him, he grabbed it all and carried it to the sofa table. Mike looked surprised at his found.

"Nice… Breakfast." He said, but then looked at the clock on the wall, that said 7.29 pm. "Really late breakfast that is."

"More like dinner." Sean chuckled.

As they started to make some sandwiches, Pat suddenly sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawned.

"Wha-what's going on?" He said, with a low coarse voice. "I smell peanut's"

"Breakfast." Sean replied and pointed at the table.

Pat just grunted and stood up. He scratched himself in the crotch a few times, mumbled something about a toilet and started walking out of the room.

Mike looked over at Sean, and they both started laughing with their mouths full.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Inside the bedroom, Sabrina was finally waking up. She reached out to the other side of the bed before turning to see. When her hands didn't connect with anything, she rolled over to look only to find that Sean was gone.

She quickly sat up, rubbing her eyes. Looking around, she noticed that Sean wasn't even in the room. But the door had been left open. The light was on in the kitchen she could see.

She got out of the bed and started moving for the door. Her feet moved silently over the carpet, as her eyes were watching the window over the bed. It was getting dark outside, so they had been wasting an entire day on sleeping.

Suddenly a shadow walked past the door. She didn't see what it was, because she wasn't paying much attention to the door, she only saw that the light got blocked for a second.

Fixing her eyes on the half open door, she walked closer to it. She the heard a door close and a lock turn. Wondering what was going on, she pushed open the door and stepped out of the bedroom.

Much to her comfort, she saw that Sean and Mike were sitting at the sofa table. But she couldn't spot Pat anywhere. She guessed it could have been him walking past the door. He had probably headed towards the toilet. It was located beyond the washroom.

"Oh, look who's up." Mike greeted her and smiled.

Sean turned around to see, and she greeted him with a warm smile. He suddenly felt all warm and fuzzy inside. Sabrina had the warmest smile in miles. No one could resist smiling back at her and Sean was no exception. He smiled back at her, but then she suddenly started laughing at him.

He frowned not getting why she was laughing, but suddenly realized that he had peanut butter on his teeth. He licked it of, trying not to laugh himself.

Sabrina sat down next to him and kissed him on the lips.

"Mmm." She said as they separated again.

Sean kept on watching her as she started to make herself a sandwich. Even though her hair was messy and her eyes a little baggy, she still looked beautiful.

_How could I get so lucky? _Sean wondered to himself. _She's smart, funny and gorgeous. How can I guy like me end up with such a goddess?_

She looked back at him, while taking a bite of her sandwich. She was thinking the exact same thing. She couldn't get over how cute he was. Never in her entire life had she ever met a guy that had been so nice to her. Sure they had sneered at each other a little the past couple of days, but it was the moments, like the one they were having right now, that made all worries fade away. She adored him, and he adored her.

Mike was just watching the couple in silence. They were so good together, he thought. Sean was such a great guy, and Sabrina was such a great girl. So naturally they would be together.

As he was watching the two, he suddenly started missing his girlfriend. He realized that she hadn't called him. She was supposed to call Pat's cell when she had gotten out of the city.

He suddenly went for Pat's backpack to see if he could find the phone. Sean and Sabrina just watched him as he frantically searched through it.

When he finally found the cell, he pulled it out and looked at the display. It displayed the text "1 missed call". He checked who the caller had been, and just as he had expected it was Judy.

Mike stood up from the armchair and started walking away from his friends.

"Sorry guys. Gotta make a call." He said and dialed the number.

"Judy?" Sean asked and Mike responded by nodding.

He walked out into the hallway that led to the front door from the living room. He closed the door to get some privacy, as he could hear the dial tone in the phone.

It just kept on dialing, so he hung up. He looked at the display again, amazed by how it lit up the dark hallway. He could barely see beyond the phone if he looked directly at the light.

Mike pushed the dial button once again. He had to know if she had made it out. It was driving him crazy not to know. Amazing how doubt can deteriorate a persons mind. It can make you do irrational and dangerous things.

He was scared of what he might do, if Judy didn't pick up her phone. Maybe she was all right, but she might as well be dead.

The dial tone beeped at least 10 times before he gave up. He was about to try again, when he realized that it was hopeless. If she had had the phone on her, she would have picked it up by now. Instead he tried to find out when she had called him. It said the call had been made at 1.23 that morning. It was around the time they had been driving towards downtown. No wonder they hadn't heard the phone ring. It had probably been in the trunk of Sean's car at the time.

Mike leaned his back against the wall and slid downwards till he reached the floor. Then he just sat there for awhile, covering his face with his hands.

He was frustrated. The doubt was tearing him apart from the inside out. Maybe she had made it out of the city at the time she had called. But maybe she hadn't and was calling him for help instead. If it was the latter, then she was most likely dead by now.

Mike shuttered the thought. He didn't want to think about it. She had to be alive.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"I hope Judy's all right…" Sean said, looking after Mike as he closed the door to the hallway. "She means a lot to him."

Sean could easily imagine how he felt. He himself would go crazy if he didn't know where Sabrina was and if she was okay or not.

Before Mike had left to call Judy, they had all been feeling comfortable and relaxed. They had felt like they were in a completely different place: a place without worries and fear. But when they had remembered Judy, then they had snapped right back to reality. Their mood had quickly changed from happiness to sadness.

Sabrina took a last bite of her sandwich and rested her head on Sean's shoulder.

_Please tell me that we're going to make it out of this. _She thought. She knew that there was a possibility that they weren't, but she needed just a little bit of hope. She needed Sean to tell her that everything was going to be okay and that soon it would all just be a bad memory.

Sean heard the toilet flush in the bathroom and seconds later Pat stepped into the living room/ kitchen.

"Where did you come from?" Sabrina asked, though she knew the answer.

"I was out… you know… shaking hands with the president." Pat answered, trying not to sound too obvious.

Sean couldn't help but smile a little.

"So why did it take so long?" He asked, since there had gone a good amount of time since Pat had walked out there.

"Well… he held a pretty long speech…" Pat joked, hoping he was going to break the ice a little.

Both Sean and Sabrina frowned and sent him a look.

"Speech? That has got to be the grossest metaphor I've ever heard in my entire life." Sabrina then said and shook her head.

"She's right, dude. That was kinda gross." Sean said, nodding.

"What? Are you serious?" Pat said, smiling. "I thought it was hilarious."

But his smile quickly went away, when his brother stepped into the living room. Mike was not looking very happy. He looked very sad, almost like he had just gotten some terrible news. But in fact he hadn't gotten any news at all, and that was what bothered him.

He just walked over to the sofa and sat down, as his friends watched him all the way in silence. He placed the cell phone on the table and covered his head with his hands soon after.

Sean didn't dare to speak a word, but he was curious.

"Is Judy all right?" He asked, but realized how stupid a question that was. _Of course she's not all right if Mike is acting so sad._

Mike slowly removed his hands from his face and looked at his friends. His eyes were red and a small tear slowly started running down his cheek.

"Shit…" Sean mumbled, but immediately got up and walked over to him. He sat down beside him, as the others joined in. Now they were all sitting next to Mike, trying to comfort him.

"I couldn't get a hold of her…" He sniffled, wiping the tears of his face. "I don't know if she's okay or not…"

"Well… has she called you yet?" Sean asked.

"YES! That's why I called her back!" Mike suddenly burst out, sneering at Sean, but then it struck him that Sean didn't know. He hadn't seen the message on the display. Mike didn't bother to apologize though. He could see that Sean didn't take it personally.

"It's okay…" Sean said, as if reading his mind. "I understand."

Mike continued. "She could be safe, but there's a chance that she might be in danger too. Maybe she was calling for help instead."

Sean could see what he meant, but he still tried to make him feel better.

"You can't know that. She's probably fine. She went a lot earlier than us. The situation wasn't this bad back then. Maybe she got out before all this." Sean said, sounding very comforting.

Mike molded it over a couple of seconds.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Maybe she was just caught up in something. That's why she called me so late." Mike said, cheering a little bit up. There was no point in assuming the worst, because that wouldn't do him any good. Instead he smiled at his friends, and wiped his face for the last time. "Thanks guys. Thanks for being there for me."

"You're welcome." Sabrina said with a warm voice.

"Anytime, bro." Pat said, and hugged him as they both got up from the sofa.

It was quite touching, Sean thought. When two brothers hugged, then it touched something deep inside. He wished that he had siblings. But then again, Mike and Pat had always been like brothers to him.

Sean got up and walked around for a second. His dizziness had dissipated and he wasn't feeling hungry anymore. Actually he felt loaded with energy. He felt like running a marathon.

He thought it was a little weird, considering he had been a cripple almost 15 minutes ago. But he ignored it and decided he was ready to go. It was time that they left the apartment. He felt that they had already spent too much time there. They had a radio station to get to.

"Are you guys feeling ready to leave this place?" He asked.

"Yeah." Pat said, feeling the same way. "Let's get the hell out of here."


	13. The Bus

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

**J. R. R. Tolkien**  
_British scholar & fantasy novelist (1892 - 1973)_

**Chapter 13**

_The Bus_

Sean was looking outside the windows by the kitchen. He could see the streets below them were empty. Unlike earlier, where there had been many of the zombies, there were now only a few staggering around. From the angle he stood in he couldn't even see his car, so he couldn't cover the entire street from up there. Many zombies could be lurking by the entrance to the apartment building.

One of the zombies he could see was standing on the other side of the road. From what he could see it was a man. He was wearing a yellow t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. The reason why Sean was looking at that particular zombie was that he was facing a wall about 1 foot away from him. He was just starring into the bricks, while he swayed back and forth.

Sean had realized by now that they were slow and stupid, but he hadn't believed that they were _that _stupid. Apparently they lost a lot of their intelligence and also some of their coordination. That was why they couldn't run or fight properly.

But most of all it seemed like they were only driven by one basic need; eating. When there weren't any food around, then they just went on stand-by. Like the one Sean was watching right now.

He was unsure if he was sleeping standing up, or if he was just too dumb to be occupied by anything else than to stare at the wall. Sean betted on the latter.

_If a living person can't sleep standing up, then a retard zombie sure as hell can't. _Sean stated to himself. Besides, he couldn't imagine a dead person sleep. _Why would a zombie be sleeping? It's dead! Or is it…_

Sean couldn't help thinking that they were still alive. Lester had died and seconds later, he had been up again. It was like he had been reawakened. Returned to life, but with a clean slate. A restarted brain, but not fully functional. Like if the brain didn't get oxygen for a period of time, then it would sustain damage. Maybe it was the same thing with the virus. It kills you, then it gives you a jolt and you restart. And under the procedure, your brain has sustained massive damage.

Sean felt like there was a logic explanation to it all. But he what he couldn't explain was the virus. Where had it come from? How did it work?

He understood most of what it did, but he still had a lot of questions.

Another thing he came to think about was why the zombies ate people. But then again, why not? All carnivores ate other living beings. And since humans were the only living things around, then naturally they would prey on them. The zombies were too stupid to be eating normal food. And they weren't going to eat each other, because they were rotting and humans weren't scavengers. So he guessed that the zombies had maintained that human aspect. He guessed that if there were any other living creatures, besides humans, they would most likely eat those too.

Sean felt a hand on his shoulder, so he snapped back to reality and turned to see who it was. Pat stood there with his backpack over one shoulder.

"Are you ready to go?" He asked, lifting his eyebrows. Even though they had planned to get going as fast as they could, an entire hour had past since they decided to do so.

They had been busy planning their route to the radio station. Everything from how they were going to change the tire, till how they were going to enter the station.

"Yeah, I'm ready…" Sean said and took a deep breath.

He stepped away from the kitchen table and headed for the hallway that led to the front door. Pat followed him out to the others who were waiting. They were waiting for him to go first. It was the plan that Sean was in front and Pat was supposed to be the last link in the chain.

Sean stepped up to the door and took a look through the peephole. His view of the stairway was a little distorted due to the shaped glass of the peephole, but he could see that the coast was clear. He thought of how funny everything looked when he looked through it. Everything got bended in a strange way, because the glass was shaped round. He didn't know why it was round though.

_Why can't they just make it straight? _He asked himself. Maybe it was something about it being a one way view. So people outside couldn't look in.

Suddenly something walked past his view and he jumped.

"Jesus!" He blurted out, but he maintained his view of the stairway.

"What was it?" Sabrina, who stood right next to him, asked.

Sean shushed her, trying to listen if he could hear footsteps. He didn't hear anything through the door, so he placed his eye by the peephole again.

This time he could see a face up close. It was a zombie, which had planted its face right at the peephole. It was a red haired woman with a gushing wound at her neck, blood covering her entire body. It startled him a little, but he kept calm.

Suddenly the zombie outside started pounding at the door, realizing that there was food on the other side.

"Shit! Have they reached our floor?" Mike asked, startled by the pounding.

"No, it's Karen…" Sean said with a lowered voice. He had recognized her right away. "I guess she turned to a zombie too."

Sean was now certain that the virus spread through bites. Everyone who had been bitten so far had turned out zombies in no time. Everyone but himself.

He stepped back from the door and raised his gun, aiming at the peephole.

"Cover your eyes and ears." He said to his friends, and they did as he told them to.

He looked away himself, maintaining his aim. He squeezed the trigger tighter and tighter until the hammer got released and hit the firing pin, which thereafter hit the primer of the chambered cartridge, detonating the priming compound and ignited the propellant. The bullet got thrust out through the barrel and exited the gun with a loud bang.

It echoed through the small hallway and died out. Sean's ears rang for a couple of seconds, but the first thing he noticed, when his hearing returned, was that the pounding on the door had stopped.

He grabbed the doorknob and turned to look at his friends, expecting their affirmation. They all nodded and he slowly turned it.

Slowly he opened the door, pointing his gun out in front of him. Karen's zombie-self was lying on the white floor of the stairway. Her just as white eyes were starring up into nothing but air. Sean saw that the bullet had entered her skull just above her right eye. The blood had spattered all over the floor and walls, and a thick pool was starting to spread from the back of her head. The sight alone made him throw up in his mouth a little bit, but he controlled himself and stepped out of the apartment.

Sean walked up to her and kicked her leg. He wanted to make sure that she was dead for good this time. Even if he had shot her in the head, he was still unsure. But seeing her lying there dead made him realize that headshots would kill anything. Zombie or no zombie, no being on earth could continue functioning without a brain. He remembered that all zombies he had shot in the head, never got up again. That proved his theory, so he felt confident that it was right.

Sean looked around the stairway to see if it was clear. Though both Lester and Karen were dead, there could still be more zombies upstairs. They hadn't barricaded the stairs to the upper levels, but maybe that was because there was no one up there. But Sean wasn't sure of that, so he stayed on alert just to make sure.

He waved his friends out from the apartment. Sabrina elegantly avoided to step in the blood and so did Mike, but Pat didn't care so he just walked right through it, leaving footprints of blood everywhere he went.

"Is she dead? For good, I mean." Mike asked, pointing at the seemingly lifeless body.

"Yeah, I think that headshots put them down for good." Sean answered.

"So that's what we have been doing wrong so far?" Pat asked. "Not shooting them in the head?"

"Yeah, I guess. It appears that they are somehow still alive after they become zombies. So they can be put down by destroying their brain, just like any other being." Sean tried to explain.

"That doesn't explain why they won't go down by shooting them in the torso…" Sabrina implied.

Sean thought about it for awhile. She was right; it didn't explain anything, so he tried to make sense of it otherwise.

"Maybe they can regenerate themselves somehow…" Sean tried. "Not very fast, but enough to keep them alive. That would explain why they got up again after being shot in other parts than the head."

"Of course…" Sabrina said, getting a little excited by the fact that they might had cracked the mystery. "That explains why they are constantly looking for food. They have to eat a lot to cover their metabolisms need for proteins!"

Sean and Sabrina stood in front of each other, agreeing on their theory's outcome. But Mike and Pat was just standing there, not getting a word of what they just said.

"So shoot them in the head?" Pat asked one last time, just to make sure that that was what Sean had meant.

"Yes, that's what I'm saying." Sean said and sighed.

"Good." Pat responded and flipped the safety off the shotgun. "That's all I need to know…"

He walked up to the rope ladder and shoved it down so it dangled a few feet above the stairs.

xxxxxxxxxxx

After descending the stairs, they stopped and waited at the front door. A zombie was lying on the floor, keeping the door from closing.

Being a little careless Sean just started walking out the door, but he stopped when he saw that the zombie had no bullet hole in its head. So it could be alive.

Sean made sure that it was dead, by shooting it right in the back of its bald head. It jumped a little by the impact, but then it was still.

He thought of how he had done it. Stone cold and without remorse. He hadn't felt anything when he had pulled the trigger. After killing only a few of them, he had already lost all sympathy. Sure, the guy was once a living human being with a life of his own and perhaps family, but now he was a brainless zombie. He had nothing left from his former being, only the fleshy shell of the person he used to be. His soul was gone.

That was what they were; soulless, flesh eating shells, walking around, spreading their disease. Sean had nothing left for them. He would kill every single one of them if it was necessary. They posed a threat to him and his friends, and threats had to be eliminated.

Continuing out the door, he braced himself for what might be out on the street. He held his gun tight and with his finger on the trigger, ready to kill anything that got in his way.

He rushed out into the open, hoping to surprise the horde of zombies he expected to be right outside. But as he got outside there was nothing to see. No horde of undead. Only a few zombies were walking around, dragging their feet. But they were about 200 feet away.

The rest of the group followed out just as fast, but stopped as soon as Sean did.

"Where did they all go? There were like a billion after us yesterday." Pat sighed, sounding almost disappointed.

Sean were still scouting the streets, but answered as he did so.

"Guess they got tired of waiting." He said.

The small group of zombies had finally noticed them, and started moving towards Sean and his friends. And they were actually moving quite fast.

"Come on. Let's deal with them before we change the tire." Pat said, raising the Benelli shotgun.

They started moving towards the car as they kept an eye on the group.

Suddenly Mike fired his revolver at them, but he missed. He was about to fire again, when Sean suddenly stopped him.

"What are you doing? Don't waste your bullets by firing at this distance." Sean said, getting a little mad at his friend. "Wait until they're in range and _then_ shoot at their heads."

Pat smirked at how Sean was lecturing his little brother. But the smirk quickly got wiped of his face when Sean grabbed the shotgun Pat was holding and lowered it.

"You shouldn't waste any shells on them either." Sean said, looking Pat in the eyes. He sighed again, but put down the shotgun, leaning it against the car. Instead he pulled out his Beretta. Sean ordered his friends to form a line so they stood shoulder to shoulder.

When the zombies were about 60 feet away, Sean fired. That was their cue to start firing too. Sean hit one in the cheek, but it didn't go down. Sabrina completely missed, but Mike hit one straight in its forehead and it fell immediately. Pat hadn't fired yet. He was still aiming, waiting for the right moment.

Four was still standing, so Sean took aim once more. This time he hit the same one between the eyes. He moved to the next one, but Pat finally fired and nailed it before Sean could pull the trigger.

The blood spattered backwards as Sabrina shot a female zombie in the shoulder. She fired again screaming in anger at it.

"Aaargh! Freakin' die already!" She yelled as she kept on firing.

The woman fell to the ground after Sabrina hit her in the eye, the brain matter spraying all over the last zombie. It didn't seem to care though the blood had hit it right in the face.

Realizing that the zombie came in with too much speed for him to raise his gun, aim and fire, he just delivered a punch straight to its blood covered face. It still stumbled forward but changed direction by the blow, overbalanced and then fell facedown into the asphalt.

Sean then pointed his gun at its head and blasted its brains all over the streets, leaving everything quiet once again. The gunshot echoing through the seemingly empty streets.

"Phew…" Sean sighed, a little shaken by the whole thing. "Is everyone all right?"

He looked around at his friends who were nodding altogether.

"Yeah, we're fine." Pat answered on everyone's behalf. "Let's change that damn tire before more of them show up."

Sean nodded and immediately started searching for the jack him and Pat had collected from the gas station. He had thrown it away in anger. But as he recalled it the jack had ended up somewhere under his car.

He walked to the right side of the car and got to his knees. The jack was lying on the ground next to the rear tire. The one that had punctured.

Sean was just about to reach for it, when he heard a high-pitched shriek coming from the down the street. He quickly got to up from the ground, forgetting all about the jack.

"Did you guys hear that?" Sean asked, but the answer was pretty obvious, due to the fact that his friends were all staring in the direction of where the noise had come from.

Another high-pitched shriek could be heard. Sean thought it sounded kind of like a big bird, but after hearing another shriek, he was not so sure. It sounded more like something bigger.

Sean didn't know why but he kept picturing a reptilian animal. Like something prehistoric.

"What the fuck is that?" Pat said, thinking out loud.

"I don't know… Sounds like something out of Jurassic Park." Sean answered. Though he had meant it as a joke, he couldn't help thinking that it _was_ some kind of reptile that was heading their way.

It _was_ heading their way. The shrieks got louder and louder by each second. But Sean became uncertain that it was alone. The shrieks did not just get louder, but they also became more and more frequent. There had to be more than one.

Sean slowly backed away from the street as the fear slowly started to knock some sense into him. Something bad was coming and they needed to get away as soon as possible. But something kept Sean from running scared: Curiosity.

He was curious of what it could be that made that sound, and his curiosity was somehow overshadowing his fear. So instead of running inside the apartment building again, he just took cover behind his car. His friends, who were just as captivated as him, did the same.

In the distance they could see some headlights appearing from around a corner. The vehicle turned their way and drove up the road.

The headlights were shining so bright that they couldn't see what kind of vehicle it was. But Pat recognized the loud noise coming from it. It was a diesel engine, and judging by the sound of how hard the engine was working to gain speed, he concluded that it was a bus. Pat noticed something else. The shrieks were following the bus.

As it got closer, Sean saw it was a bus too. But it wasn't just a regular bus, more like a mobile home. It didn't have windows in rows along the side, but only a few.

When they were out of the bus's light, then Sean got a better view of it. The bus was silver and black in color. The front part was silver and the back was black, the colors dividing at an angle in the middle. From that angle a 2 feet thick, black stripe was painted forward, ending in an angle too. Inside that stripe was written "Point Blank Tour" in big white letters. It was apparently a tour bus.

Almost enchanted by the bus, Sean hadn't noticed what was going on with it. On top of it was sitting a couple of gorilla looking creatures, trying to get inside the bus through the roof.

Gorilla was the best way to describe the look of what Sean saw. Dark, hunchbacked creatures with long arms. That was all he got to see, because all of a sudden shots were fired and Sean ducked out of the way.

As the tour bus raced by, more shots were fired and more animalistic shrieks could be heard. A couple of stray bullets hit Sean's car and he sunk even further into his hiding spot. Pat, Mike and Sabrina were also trying to hide behind the car, but there was little room.

Apparently it was enough though, because one of the gorilla things jumped right past them on the other side of the car. Or at least Sean thought it was one of them that jumped by, because he could hear a clicking sound from when it leaped. He guessed that it was claws making the sound.

Soon the sounds of guns being fired, shrieks and the noisy diesel engine, faded out as the tour bus got further and further away.

Sean's heartbeat slowed down in pace with the growing silence. He finally built up the courage to get up from the cold asphalt and take a look around. The bus was gone and so were the gorillas. There was nothing to see really. Everything was as before the bus had past by.

"I think the coast is clear, guys." Sean said after getting a good look at the streets. His friends slowly got up from behind the car and started scouting the streets too.

"What the hell just happened?" Mike asked since he hadn't seen the half of it. He had been hiding most of the time.

"It was a bus." Pat said. "A bus full of people."

"People?" Sabrina asked.

As Pat was talking to the others, Sean was thinking about the bus. It had somehow looked so familiar, but he couldn't tell what it was.

"Point Blank Tour…" He said to himself. He had heard that before.

"Did you say something, Sean?" Sabrina asked him, ending her talk with Pat and Mike.

"It wasn't just any bus, guys…" Sean said, looking at them. "It was Last Man Standing's tour bus."

There was a second's silence. Then Mike decided to speak up.

"Last Man Standing?" He asked, unaware of what Sean was talking about.

"You don't know who Last Man Standing is?" Sabrina asked him, thinking that Mike had to be a little ignorant not to know who that was.

"Umm, no. That's why I'm asking." Mike responded getting a little impatient.

"Well, it might be the greatest heavy metal band ever existed." Sean said, expressing his opinion about the band.

"Still doesn't ring a bell…" Mike said.

Pat was apparently not listening, so he couldn't help his brother either. He was walking around, still scouting for dangers.

"It doesn't matter. " Sean said. "But anyway, it was their tour bus, because it said "Point Blank Tour" on the side and that's the tour they're doing. They were supposed to end it here in Raccoon City."

"Some place to end it, huh?" Sabrina said, rather sarcastically.

"Yeah, I hope to God that they're all right." He said. "I don't know what I'd do without their music."

Sean knew that the chances that they had gotten out of there were slim. He wasn't even sure that it was them riding the bus. That could have been anyone.

He wondered if the band ever had the chance of playing at the concert the other day. Maybe all hell had broken loose during a song. Sean didn't like the image. He imagined how the virus could have spread through the crowd. The panic and screaming, while the band could see it all happen right before them. Without being able to help.

Maybe it was a good thing he hadn't gotten tickets for the concert. If he had been there he would probably be dead by now.

_Not that it would have mattered… _Sean thought. _I'm going to die here anyway._

Sean shuttered the thought. He couldn't give up now. Not when they were so close to getting help. They just had to get to the radio station, and then they would be saved. But Sean was about to hear some bad news.

"Sean!" Pat called to him. "You should probably check this out."

Sean looked over at the big guy, who was standing at the other side of the Civic. He was looking down at something. Sean walked to him and looked at whatever Pat was looking at.

"Tell me that ain't true…" Sean said and put both hands on his head.

"What ain't true?" Sabrina asked and saw Sean's expression. He looked like all hope had just left him. Sabrina's heart sunk and a lump formed in her throat. _This can't be good._ She thought.

"It's the front tire… it's flat too." Sean said and sighed.

When the people from the bus had fired at the creatures, then a couple of stray bullets had hit Sean's car. One of the bullets had apparently hit the tire.

"Fuck!" He yelled and kicked the tire as hard as he could, which he shouldn't have done. Because now his foot hurt like crazy.

"We can't drive with a flat tire." Pat said. "Even if we changed the front tire, the car would still be very difficult to steer."

"Yeah, I would break my arms trying to keep it going straight." Sean responded, explaining the problem. "Guess we've been wasting our time trying to plan this…"

Sean could see how it devastated his friends, knowing that they had to come up with yet another plan.

"How far away is the radio station?" Mike asked.

"I don't know… 6 or 7 blocks maybe…" Sean answered, not sure about their exact location. He didn't know downtown that well.

"We can walk that far." Sabrina said, trying to lift the spirit a little. "We have to try."

"All right. We'll walk, but we have to be careful." Sean said. "God knows what else is walking the streets besides zombies."

"Let's get going then." Pat said, glad that they had come to a decision.

Mike, Sabrina and Pat then started walking in the direction the bus had gone. Sean on the other hand turned around and glanced at his car for one last time. It was the second time he had to leave something he held dear. First his house and now his car.

But he was glad that he still had his friends. He didn't know what to do without them. They gave him faith in that they were going to get out of there.

_If we just stay together_… He thought and turned around, running up to his friends.

xxxxxxxxxxx

**AN: This chapter is more or less dedicated to Escape the Shadows's story "Last Man Standing". It's a really great story and I strongly recommend everyone to read it. I can only say that if you like my story, then you're gonna love his work.  
And to you Escape the Shadows: Thank you for letting me do this, and I hope you like the outcome.  
Untill next time...**


	14. Wonder What's Next

**AN: It's time for another chapter. Hope to God you like it, 'cause I've been working my ass off the entire week to try and get it done. I started writing about two weeks ago, but had a block. Then I started again this monday, and I've been writing ever since. I know it's been a long time since my last update. Too long, but I needed a break from it.  
But now I'm back in business and I hope you all will be pleased with the outcome.  
PS: I almost forgot to ask, but how did you like the sex/love-scene between Sean and Sabrina earlier in the story?(Chapter 4) I remember having a hard time writing it, since I'm not used to writing such things. I just felt it was necessary to the story to have a scene like that.**

Common sense is the best sense I know of.

**Lord Chesterfield **  
_(1694 - 1773)_

**Chapter 14**

_Wonder What's Next_

"I'm so tired of being pulled, from one way to the next…" Sean was singing silently to himself. "I'm so sick of your advice; just leave me alone… alone…"

Sean was humming a melody as he walked behind his friends. It was a song from Last Man Standing's latest album. The band whose tour bus that had just raced by his very eyes just about an hour ago. He still couldn't believe what he had seen. If the band had been in the bus, it was the closest Sean had ever been to them. He had never been to any of their concerts or anything, though he was quite the fan. He loved their music and often listened to it everyday at work. Of course not everyone shared his taste in music and his colleagues often told him to turn it off.

When he had heard the band was going to play in Raccoon City, Sean had rushed out to get tickets for the concert, but he had been too late. The tickets had all been sold out. It hadn't meant the end of the world to him though, but at the time he had felt a little pissed. Now, on the other hand, he was thankful.

Sean and his friends had been walking for quite some time now. But they had covered a lot of distance, as they were only a few blocks from their goal.  
But Sean was slowly starting to fall behind. His friends were walking about 20 feet ahead of him and the distance was increasing. He couldn't seem to keep up with them. His body wouldn't let him.

It had started a couple of blocks away from where they were. He had never felt like it before. The one moment he felt dizzy and fatigued and the next moment he felt fine. It hit him in waves, on and off. At first he hadn't really noticed it, but the waves became more and more frequent and exhausting for each time.  
Sean would normally feel dizzy and fatigued when he needed a shot of insulin, but this felt somehow different. If he needed insulin, the feeling would be constant, not coming in waves. Though it felt out of the ordinary, Sean stopped to take a shot, just to see if it worked. It was some time ago he took his last shot so it should be okay.

He took off his backpack and kneeled. With shaking hands he desperately tried to get a hold on the zipper, but he finally got it fixed open. The light from the streetlamps wasn't enough to help him see the inside of the backpack, so he had to feel his way through the ammo-boxes, extra clothes and the other stuff. Fortunately he knew how the casing for the syringes felt like, so when he could feel the soft surface of the pencilhouse-like casing, he grabbed it and pulled it out. However, this casing also had a tiny zipper so he had to concentrate to get that open too. As he started to feel a prickly sensation in his fingers, he got even more stressed. Normally that wouldn't happen until very late in the process. Usually that feeling was one of the final symptoms before he would pass out. But it was all wrong, it all went too fast. It had all come so sudden. First he had been fine, but the next he had felt like all energy just had left his body. Normally it took at least an hour or more for him to get that bad.

Panting heavily, like he had just run half a marathon, he pulled the cap off a syringe and stung it directly in his belly. He had practically punched it into his skin and he had been so busy getting a shot as fast as possible, that he had forgotten to expose his stomach. So the needle had just gone through his t-shirt. It didn't really matter, because the needle could easily pass through both the shirt and his skin. The effect of the insulin was instant. He could feel his heart slowing down again, and the prickly sensation slowly dissipating.

_What the hell is going on? _Sean thought, exhausted and frustrated by the fact that he almost had a seizure. _If this gets worse…_

Suddenly a series of loud bangs came from the street ahead, and Sean snapped back to the situation at hand. He looked up only to find that his friends were gone. Sean's heart almost stopped for a second. He had been so busy getting a shot that he hadn't been keeping an eye on the others.

More shots could be heard, and finally Sean decided to get up. He started running in the direction of the sound, while he simultaneously slung the backpack over his shoulder and pulled his Colt out of his jeans.

Then he heard Sabrina screaming. That made something go off in his head, and suddenly he ran faster than ever. The sound of her scream made him feel scared and concerned, but most of all angry. And his anger fuelled his body, making the adrenaline rush through his veins.

He followed the sounds around a corner, but stopped when he saw what was happening. Sabrina and Mike were heading up some stairs while Pat was covering them. Sean would just run to them, but a huge number of zombies were standing between him and his friends. Apparently they had been attacked all of a sudden and had decided to seek refuge in the nearest building. But they had forgotten all about Sean in the turmoil.

"Sean!" Pat called out, suddenly spotting him on the other side of the crowd. He yelled something else, but Sean couldn't make anything out of it, because of the moans and groans from the many zombies.

"What?! Pat, I can't hear you!" Sean tried to yell back, but Pat started firing at the zombies, because they were getting too close for comfort. When he couldn't hold them off no more, he had to turn around and run inside. Sean jumped up and down, waving his hands, but Pat had already shut the door.

_What am I gonna do now?_ He thought, as his arms fell down to his sides again.

Suddenly Sean saw to his horror that most of the zombies had turned around, now facing in his direction. But Sean didn't turn around to run away. He was determined on getting inside that building.  
Sean raised his gun, aiming at the nearest zombie's head.

_That's not going to help… _He thought, realizing how many there were. He couldn't shoot his way through them, nor could he run around them. They were covering the entire entrance.

A zombie came too close Sean, so he shot it in the head, watching it fall to the ground. But suddenly it was like the shot had sparked something in some of the other zombies. They started moving faster towards him, and Sean eventually had to run away from them.

He stopped when he had gotten a good distance from them, but then he could hear a distant ringing. He held his breath as he listened, but suddenly realized that the sound wasn't distant at all. It came from his pants.  
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. The display was flashing with green light, and it spelled "Patrick" with big letters. Sean pushed the answer button and put the phone to his ear. "Yeah?"

"_Sean, it's Pat."_ A voice answered.

"No shit! What the fuck just happened?" Sean said, cold and harsh.

"_I'm sorry, but they came out of nowhere, and by the time we realized you were missing, we were knee deep in shit."_ Pat tried to explain.

"All right, forget it. What are we gonna do?" Sean hurried on. "There's no way I'm going to take every last one of them out."

Pat went silent for awhile, but Sean could hear he was doing something in the other end. He could hear a door open and a lot of footsteps.

"_If you can somehow get them away from the entrance, then we can come out to you."_ Pat said, trying to come up with a solution. _"We can't get anywhere in here. Pretty much everything is locked. Our only option is to go out the way we came in."_

Sean looked around to see if there was anything around him, he could use.

"I'll figure something out, just go to the entrance and get ready." Sean said and hung up. He had his eyes on something he was quite sure he could use…

xxxxxxxxxxx

A window got smashed in on the front doors, and Pat retaliated by shooting a round through the opening, almost ripping the face off a blond female zombie.

"Sean… you gotta think of something fast…" He whispered to himself, as he raised his shotgun once again to shoot the head off an undead. Only this time nothing happened when he pulled the trigger. All he heard was the unpleasant sound of a hammer hitting the firing pin. Normally that was what happened when firing a gun, but the sound gets drowned out when the pin thereafter ignites the primer and the round is fired. It was the dreadful click of an empty chamber.

A zombie with its face half devoured had already gotten its arms through the small window and was trying to get its head through too. Quick as Pat was, he turned the shotgun around and hit the zombie right in its eye with the butt. It wasn't enough though, because the zombie had a firm grip around the windows frame. And he wasn't about to let go.

Agitated and desperate Pat tried again, but he made the terrible mistake of not aiming properly first. Instead of hitting it straight in the face, he only strafed it and he got overbalanced. He fell forward into the door, cutting himself on the glass shards still sitting in the window's frame. The shards went deep into his flesh and ripped long gaps in his forearms. He couldn't hold on to the shotgun anymore and his hands just gave up, dropping it outside of the window.

"Argh!" He screamed in pain, and quickly pulled his arms to himself. It took him some time to realize that he had just dropped their best weapon, against the threat they were facing right now, out the window.

"Fuck!" He yelled as hard as he could, turning really angry.

And if that wasn't enough, the zombie whom he had just beaten with the butt of the shotgun, was grinning. Or at least it looked like it. It was missing its entire upper lip, locking its face in a creepy eternal grin. He could almost hear it laugh at him, mocking his foolish attempt to knock it out of the window.

Once again the zombie made a try to get through the window, and Pat raised his fist to punch it. But before he could deliver a nose crunching punch to the face of the "joker", as he had creatively had named it, someone grabbed his arm from behind.

"Don't be stupid." Sabrina said, but not in a condescending tone. Her voice was soft and calming, so Pat lowered his arm and stepped back.

Sabrina raised her 9mm Beretta and aimed directly at the joker's grinning face. She didn't like the idea of taking a life, even though she had put down a couple of cats on her job at the animal hospital. Of course this was a lot different, but in both situations it had to be done. What made it easier with zombies was that their life had already been taken.

Sighing deeply, she pulled the trigger.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sean had spotted a couple of cars not far from the building where his friends were trapped. But one particular car had caught his eye. It was a seemingly new Mercedes Benz. It was weird to see such an expensive car in that part of town. It wasn't exactly the place where you wanted to leave something as valuable as a Mercedes. Unless you wanted to find it next morning standing on a couple of boxes, missing all the wheels and doors. But then again, it didn't look like it had been parked there on purpose. It was, more or less, parked in the middle of the street.  
It was quite obvious that someone had been forced to leave it there; most likely because it had run out of gas. What surprised Sean though was that it was locked, like the driver had expected to come back for it later. The car must have had meant a lot to the owner. But it suited him just fine, in fact Sean had hoped it was locked, or else he couldn't have done what he was about to.

"Sorry 'bout your car, dude…" Sean whispered to himself, raised his right arm with the Colt in his hand and then swung it at the side window, smashing it in with the bottom of the grip of the gun.  
Just as he had hoped the alarm started, and a siren sounding like that of a police car came from the Mercedes. Also the lights had started blinking like crazy. It looked like a giant lightshow complete with annoying music and all.

The zombies had been attracted to the sound of the fire alarm, Mike had installed back in the house, so Sean was hoping that a similar ruckus would attract the zombies this time around too. It was a long shot, considering they already had their eyes fixed on his friends, but he was a little short of trucks full of pork chop, so this had to do.

His plan was too push the car closer to the crowd, because it was parked a little too far away. So he stuck his arm inside the car and unlocked the door, pulled the handle and opened it. He then reached inside the car to release the handbrake, but he couldn't because of his backpack. Deciding not to leave it behind, he took it off and placed it on the front seat. Now he could reach the handbrake and so he released it.

The car slowly started moving forward, without him even pushing it. Sean had noticed that the road had a small gradient, which sloped downwards in the direction of the zombies. That made it a whole lot easier for him. But even though he was aware that it would start rolling, it still caught him off guard. He hadn't expected it to be so hard to step out of the car while it was moving, so he almost fell. But he grabbed the door for support and he avoided getting hurt.

Soon the car gained a little speed so Sean started turning the wheel to steer the car, as he walked next to it. But his slow walk quickly turned to a jog as the car rolled towards the zombies. Normally it wasn't hard for him to run at this speed, but to simultaneously have half of his upper body inside the car and trying to steer it, was quite difficult. Eventually his feet couldn't keep up and he stumbled over them, falling forward onto the coarse asphalt. Luckily his face landed on his arms, which were stretched forward during the fall. But his hands got scraped pretty bad on the impact.

Despite the pain, he was up on his feet again in a second. He looked at the car, which was continuing forward towards the rather large group of zombies.

"Shit shit shit…" He said to himself, as he started running after it. His insulin was in his backpack, so he had to get it out before it was too late. But unfortunately the car didn't stop until it had run over a couple of zombies, standing a bit to the side of the group.

Soon the noise had got about half of the crowd's attention and the zombies started to move towards the inferno consisting of blinking headlights and different types of sirens.

Running as hard as he could, Sean reached the car before it got overrun. He ripped the door open and reached inside to get his backpack. He grabbed the strap and pulled, but it was stuck on something. Sean quickly looked back to see how far away the zombies were from him, but he didn't even have the time to react because they were right on top of him. He threw himself forwards inside the car with the backpack in front of him.

He heard the door close behind him for some reason, so he turned around and saw that the zombies apparently had been so eager to get inside that they had pushed the door causing it to close in the process. But they could still enter the car through the broken window, and soon Sean felt their clammy hands on his ankles. Sean desperately went for his gun, but realized that it was missing. He looked frantically around the car to see if he had dropped it between the seats or elsewhere.

Realizing that it wasn't in there, Sean really started to panic. He kicked his legs against the zombie's arms as he desperately tried to find the handle on the passenger side's door. He fumbled with the handle again and again, but couldn't get a grip.

Finally he hit one of zombies in head. His constant kicking had paid off, and it bought him a couple of seconds to turn around to find the door handle. The door clicked as he pulled it, and he pushed it open.

He had probably been better off staying inside the car, because as he looked outside he saw that the zombies had surrounded him completely. Suddenly Sean saw his gun lying on the ground just outside the car door. It had been stuck between the passenger seat and the door, so when he had opened it, the gun had fallen to the ground.

Sean lunged forward, landing on his stomach. All air got knocked out of him, but he reached the Colt and grabbed it. In the same moment a zombie lunged in his direction. It was only a few feet from him, but still he managed to raise his gun and pull the trigger in time. He hit it straight in the face, and it fell backwards, pulling a few other zombies down with it.

All of a sudden he heard a loud thump and the whole car shook. It had come from the roof of the car. Sean looked over his shoulder, spotting to legs hang down from outside the windshield. He then heard a chilling moan from above him, and he turned to look. But the zombie had already locked its bony fingers around the neck of his jacket.

Sean struggled to get free, but the zombie just kept on pulling him upwards, lifting him up from the seat. He only had one option. He had the gun in his right hand, so he covered his left ear with his left hand. Then he guided the gun under and beyond his left arm, and aimed up at the roof.

He fired the gun and got released immediately, falling down on the seat again. His ears were ringing so loudly that the sound of the sirens almost got drowned by it, but he ignored it for now. Instead he turned around to lie on his back, and quickly aimed up at the drooling zombie's head. It hissed at him, almost like it knew what was coming.

_BOOM!_ Sean pulled the trigger, ending the zombie's miseries.

Blood was dripping down in Sean's face, so he wiped it in his sleeve, closing his eyes in the process. After he had moved his arm down his face, he opened his eyes again. He tipped his head back to see if it was secure to get out, but suddenly a zombie came out of nowhere and grabbed him in his jacket. Sean raised his gun to shoot, but then stopped. It wasn't a zombie; it was Pat.

Pat stopped when he was starring down the barrel of Sean's .45. But he made eye contact with Sean and he quickly lowered the gun.

"Don't worry! I'm gonna get you out of here!" Pat yelled to him, trying to drown out the gunshots. Sabrina and Mike were standing on each side of Pat, covering him as he pulled Sean out of the car.

Sean hadn't even noticed the gunshots until now. He had been deaf to it, because he had been firing the gun inside the car. He had tried to isolate the loud bang with his arm, but it had still been very loud, because the space was so confined.

"No, wait!" Sean yelled and got up on his feet. Pat helped him get up, and watched as he ran back to the car. He pulled out his backpack from the front seat.

"Come on!" Sabrina yelled over her shoulder. "We need to move now!"

Sean swung the backpack over his shoulder and started running along with Pat. Sabrina and Mike fired a few more rounds, but soon joined them.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"I think we can stop running now." Mike said, getting a little short of air. "Think we have lost them already."

Sean and the other two stopped too. He looked back, even though he knew Mike was right. They had been running for quite some time now, and no way was it possible for the zombies to keep up. They couldn't run, so it was pretty obvious.

Sean leaned forward trying to ease the pain in his side. He had gotten side stitch, because he actually wasn't very agile. He hadn't been running in ages, so naturally it had to catch up with him eventually. Just sitting at work, fixing guns didn't really keep him in shape.

Mike looked just as wasted as himself, but Pat and Sabrina looked fine. They were panting a little bit too, but it didn't seem like they were in any pain.

Sabrina noticed that Sean was looking confused at her. He had no idea that she was so agile, or how for that matter.

"I work out." She said to him, and shrugged. Sean just shook his head and concentrated on getting his heartbeat down to normal speed. It was pounding like crazy. So much that the veins in his ears were pounding too.

Pat was covering the area with the shotgun, not exhausted from the "marathon" they had just run. However, Sean could understand why. Pat was very well trained. Not just muscle wise, but also stamina wise. He had to be to join SWAT.

They found a place to take a break. It was out in the open, but nothing was around so they sat down for a minute. It wasn't going to be a long break, just enough for them to calm down and maybe reload their guns.

Sean put his backpack in front of him and started taking out an ammo-box. He pulled his Colt out of his pants and pushed out the magazine. To his surprise he saw that it was empty. He pulled back the slide and found a bullet in the chamber.

"One bullet left…" He said to himself. It was lucky that he hadn't pulled the trigger when Pat had come along to pull him out of the car. He felt a little shaken by it, since he had almost shot one of his best friends. He wondered why he hadn't notified him that he came to pull him out. But then again Sean thought of how hard of hearing he had been by the gunshots. Pat had probably called on him several times, but without Sean ever hearing it.

Pat sat down beside him, as Sean started loading bullets into the magazine.

"Hey. Thanks for saving us back there." He said to Sean with a warm and thankful voice.

"Don't mention it. Besides, you kinda saved me too, even though I almost shot you." Sean responded, smiling at his friend. Pat grinned.

"Yeah, that was a close call." Pat said. "Anyway, it was pretty clever that you used the car to distract them. We got out without any trouble."

"Okay, that's comforting... I wasn't sure if it would work, but it was the only thing I could come up with."

"All right, but ehm… what were you doing _inside_ the car?" Pat asked him.

Sean chuckled and smiled. "Yeah, that's a long story…"

"Hehe, okay…" Pat laughed, but nodded understandingly. He could imagine that Sean had forgotten something in all the commotion and made some mistakes.

Sean noticed a scratch on the barrel of the Benelli shotgun Pat was carrying.

"What's that?" Sean asked and pointed, displeased by the sight of that his shotgun had been mishandled. Pat looked down the barrel and saw the scratch, Sean was talking about.

"Oh yeah, I dropped it out of the door. Sorry…" Pat apologized.

"It's okay, I'm just glad you got it back." Sean said. "I don't think we can manage without it. It has been pretty helpful so far. And you put it to good use too."

"Well, I do my best." Pat said and smiled.

Sean looked over at Sabrina who was reloading too. She was struggling to get the bullets pushed into the magazine. She wasn't really trained in that part of gun handling. Sure she knew how to ready and fire a gun, but Sean had always reloaded the magazines for her, when they had been visiting the gunrange. It wasn't really hard, but considering the circumstances at the moment, Sean could understand that she had a hard time doing it. It was kind of cold, and she was tired.

Sean moved over to her and sat down beside her.

"Need help?" He asked her.

She looked up at him and smiled. "No, I'm fine."

Apparently she wanted to do it herself. It was the only way she could learn. Besides, she had the feeling that it would be pretty useful at the current time.

"Uhm, guys?" Mike said, suddenly standing up after reloading his revolver.

Sean looked up at him. "What is it, Mike?"

He pointed at a building not far from where they were sitting. It had huge letters spelling "RCFM radio station".

"We're here."

**AN: Once again I made a reference to Escape the Shadow's Last Man Standing. I just thought that it was fitting concidering what Sean had just experienced.  
This chapter had some more action, as some of you requested. Hope you liked it.  
Don't know when I will update next, but it probably won't be too long, since I'm in a good mood at the moment. I'm hoping to write the next chapter in the next 2 weeks, but I can't make any promises.  
Later...**


	15. Solace

**AN: Got another chapter done. Finally. I have been struggling with it the past two-three weeks now. So I _really_ hope you like it.  
Hmm, no comments on the 4th chapter thing, huh? Too bad. I was kind of hoping to get some response to that. Just to know if it is inappropriate to have a love/sex-scene in the story.  
I want to thank Seifer Almasy 911 for helping me write this chapter. Well, he didn't help me directly, but he kept pushing me into writing. And I must say it actually helped, because I needed a shove. I've been way too lazy lately. So thanks Seifer for reminding me how much you've been looking forward to the next chapter, hehe. And I guess you other readers can thank him too.  
If anyone should feel the need to write to me, then use the link to my homepage in my profile. It leads to my Myspace profile.****  
Anyway, enjoy the latest installment of Chambered.  
Later...**

While there's life, there's hope.

**Cicero**, _Ad Atticum_

_Roman author, orator, & politician (106 BC - 43 BC)_

**Chapter 15**

_Solace_

Sean slowly pushed the door open, pointing the gun inside. Covering the seemingly empty room, he held the door with his foot letting his friends inside. They spread out in the room with raised guns, covering every corner.

"Clear." Pat said, like they were all part of some kind of Special Forces unit on a routine job.

Sean removed his foot from the door and it slammed shut. He looked around the room for a second, trying to get a feel of the place.

It was like a reception of some kind. It had a reception desk, a waiting area with a sofa and chairs, though the chairs were lying disorderly in a pile. At the end of the room there was a set of stairs, going only upwards. Two huge pillars were in the middle of the room, between the waiting area and the reception desk.

It was a little dark inside and practically no lights were on anywhere, except for a desk lamp on the reception desk that was lit. Also the lamp over the sofa table was lit, but it kept flickering on and off. Sean thought it was a little annoying, since it was the only lamp that gave descent light.

Though it was hard, Sean slowly started to adjust to the constant flickering. He could make out that the floor was covered by a lot of stuff. All kinds of gossip magazines were scattered around on the red-brown tile floor. Or that was the color Sean thought it had, but he soon noticed that at other places the tiles were actually white-grey colored. The red-brown stuff he had seen was in fact small puddles of blood.

Sean felt a chill down his spine. He had really hoped that going to the radio station could have brought them some solace, but by the looks of the reception room the place didn't look very safe. Everything pointed to that there had been a fight in there. Chairs were scattered everywhere, plants were smashed and there were bullet casings lying around the room's floor too. He felt like leaving, afraid of what else they might discover.

_Maybe we're too late. Maybe everyone's dead already._ He thought, fearing the worst.

Before they had entered the radio station they had gone through an entrée of some sort, so they hadn't come directly from the outside. Sean turned around and looked through the glassy entrance, checking if anything was following them. He wouldn't want them to be trapped here too.

After some time everyone lowered their guns, and started looking at each other, expecting someone to know the answer to what they should do next.

Eventually all eyes fell on Sean, since his friends had started to trust him as their leader. He thought it was a little weird, because they were all adults with the power to make their own decisions, but in times like these people needed someone to guide them. Of course it wasn't like Sean was in total control of every decision they made. They were all involved in the decision-making, but Sean was usually the first one with a solution to the problem.

"Hello?!" Sean decided to call out. He could at least try, because that couldn't hurt. But in this case it could. He couldn't know what he might attract by yelling. Despite that he tried again.

"Hello?! Anyone there?!"

No answer…

Suddenly they heard a bump, like something heavy fell to the floor. The sound had come from a door to their left. They all looked in that direction, discovering that the door was a little open.

Sean raised his gun and started moving towards it. Sabrina was closest of the other three so she joined him.

With slow steps they moved towards the door. Sean went for the doorknob and turned it rather slowly. He then pushed the door forward, making it swing open at a slow rate. The door creaked as the opening revealed more and more of the room.

It was dark in there. Too dark to see anything, but Sean could hear something in there. It was a clicking sound, followed by something that reminded of someone's heavy breathing. The sound alone made him shudder.

Usually the switch for the lights would be placed just inside the room, on the wall next to the door. So Sean removed his one hand from the gun and tried to feel his way to the switch. Luckily he found the switch to be right beside the door as he had presumed. Sean tightened his grip around his gun and took aim in the direction he thought the sound was coming from. He took a final deep breath, preparing himself for what he was about to see, and so he pushed it.

The lights went on with a click and were to reveal whatever it was that was making that hair-raising clicking sound.

Nothing was there. There were no zombies or any other type of creature in there. Only a desk with various office utensils on it. There were some file cabinets, some knocked over plants and a paper basket filled with paper. A typical office, with nothing out of the ordinary.

The clicking sound had come from a ventilator that had been knocked over. It was lying on the floor, still spinning its rotor. It had gotten deform from the fall, and the rotor kept on hitting the bent grid. The breathing sound had simply come from the blow of the ventilator. But as Sean listened to it now, he could clearly tell that it wasn't a breathing sound. In fact it didn't even sound remotely like breathing. It had been his imagination playing with him.

Sean sighed in relief and so did Sabrina, who apparently stood right behind him, looking over his shoulder.

"Nothing here." Sean said loudly so Pat and Mike could hear it. But even though the room seemed empty, Sean decided to go inside and check anyway. He looked at Sabrina and she nodded. They both lowered their guns and started moving further into the room.

Sean stopped by the ventilator and bended down to turned it off, so he could hear if there were any other noises in the room. He wondered what could have knocked the ventilator over. It couldn't have fallen by it self. He got up again and moved around the desk to see if there was anything there.

Again nothing, but just as he was about to turn away, he noticed something in the corner of the room. A grid was lying on the floor in front of a small rectangular hole in the wall. It was some kind of ventilation shaft, Sean figured. He looked down at the black hole, and then started to sink to his knees so that he could get a better view of it.

"Is there something there?" Sabrina asked, as she watched him disappear behind the desk.

Sean didn't answer. He just kept starring at the ventilation shaft. He didn't know what it was, but he felt like something was starring back at him.

"Sean! Sabrina!" Pat suddenly shouted from the other room, almost giving Sean a heart attack. "I think you should check this out!"

Sean got up from the floor and started moving back out the door, but before leaving the room, he glanced back in the direction of the ventilation shaft. Something wasn't right. He turned out the light and closed the door; just to make sure that whatever it was that was in there, didn't get out.

"What was it?" Sabrina asked him, as he closed the door.

"I don't know. But I'm not planning on finding out." He said and found a chair.

"What is that for?" Sabrina asked and put her hands on her hips. "The door opens inwards..."

Sean looked at the door, and then at the chair.

"You're right." He admitted, feeling a little dumb. Throwing the chair away, he turned to see what it was that Pat had to show them.

Pat and Mike had apparently gotten impatient with the other two, and had decided to check out the rest of the area. Now they were standing by the stairs.

"What's up?" Sean asked when he reached them. Mike just pointed at the staircase that led up. Sean frowned, not getting what he meant. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"What?!" He asked.

"Look up and around the bend." Mike said. Sean looked over at Pat, and he nodded.

Sean then walked halfway up the stairs and looked around the bend. Now he got what he had meant. The next floor was blocked by a shutter.

"Great, just great." He said as he walked down the stairs again. "Now what?"

"We'll take the elevator." Pat said and grinned.

Sean's face suddenly brightened up.

"You're kidding me, right?" He said.

Mike smiled and then pointed at something behind Sean. He turned around, and saw an open elevator with lights on and everything. It was very small, and as the sign to the left of the doors said, the elevator couldn't hold more than two people at a time.

"It just opened a few minutes ago. We didn't even touch the call button." Mike explained.

"Creepy…" Sabrina said, wondering how that happened.

"Not really, it can only be, that whoever it is there's upstairs is controlling the elevator." Mike said. "Or that the elevator is malfunctioning."

Everyone went quiet for awhile.

"So who wants to go first?" Sean asked, but got no answer. "Come on! It'll hold. And it's not like there's some lunatic waiting upstairs, right?"

Though he couldn't be sure about that, he hoped that whatever was up there could give them some solace. And they had to try, because they had nowhere else to go.

"Me and Mike will go first." Pat said. "If we're not back in five, then…"

"Then we'll just wait longer, got it." Sean finished his sentence. "You'll be fine. Don't worry."

Pat nodded, and stepped into the elevator with his brother.

"We'll call you from upstairs if everything's allright." Mike said, before the door shut in front of them.

Sean and Sabrina could hear the humming from the elevator as it ascended.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Pat raised the shotgun, when they could feel the elevator slowing down. Mike did as his brother and raised his firearm.

Mike could feel his heart pumping violently. Practically his entire body was pounding. Every vein he had was following the fast rhythm of his heavy heartbeat. He was scared as hell.

The elevator had stopped at second floor. But then Mike remembered what the broadcast had said on the radio. It had said that they were on the 3rd floor.

_Then why are we stopping here..?_ He thought, getting even more nervous. He had a feeling that something was wrong.

But it was too late; the elevator door was already beginning to open. The doors slid slowly to the sides, and more and more of the floor got revealed.

Mike was expecting a flood of zombies, but his heart almost stopped beating when he saw that there was nothing there. No one was there to meet them, neither living nor undead.

Mike lowered his gun, but quickly raised it again when he noticed Pat didn't lower his. For some reason Pat didn't consider it safe to relax just yet.

The room before them was large and pretty well lit. Every light in there had been turned on, not leaving a single shadow unlit. Mike noticed that all furniture had been moved to the corner of the room. That had left the entire room completely clear of obstacles. It seemed odd, Mike thought.

Pat was just about to step into the room, when a voice coming from inside the room suddenly broke the silence.

"Step out of the elevator, with your hands above your head!" A deep and coarse male voice said, demandingly.

Mike looked over at Pat, but he didn't move a muscle. He didn't look like he was going to obey the order they had been given.

"Show yourself!" A female voice then said, in the same demanding tone.

Pat sighed and then lowered his shotgun.

"It's okay, I think." He said to Mike, figuring that they had no other choice but to obey. "Allright, we're coming out!"

They both raised their arms, holding their guns up too, and then stepped out into the room.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Downstairs Sean and Sabrina were waiting patiently. Sabrina was leaning against one of the pillars, trying to remove some of the weight from her legs. She was in good shape physically, but she wasn't used to be on her feet for such a long time. They had been walking a lot of miles the last couple of hours.

"You want a chair?" Sean asked, politely when he noticed how she was standing.

She smiled to him, but declined.

"No, I'm fine." She said. "But thank you for asking."

Sean smiled back, admiring her strength. She was stronger than most women, at her age. Most women would have succumbed to the exhaustion by now, but she just kept on going.

Sean looked back at the display over the elevator door. It still indicated that it was at the 2nd floor. He didn't think much about the fact that the survivors were to be at the 3rd floor. He just thought that maybe the display wasn't working properly. The display system was rather new and was made out of light-emitting diodes. But apparently some of the diodes were out. He could barely make out the number 2.

Sean was really hoping that there still were people up there. He didn't think that he and his friends would be rescued once they got there, but he hoped that they could be safe for awhile.

Suddenly Sean and Sabrina heard a strange noise coming from the office down by the entrance. It was a weird clicking sound, but not like the one they had heard earlier in the same room. This time around, it sounded somehow different. Not like metal, but something else.

Claws were the first thing Sabrina could think of. Like when a dog was walking around on a tiled floor.

"Stay here." Sean said to her, as he started walking towards the office.

"No, I'm coming with you." Sabrina protested. She didn't want him to be alone if the source of the sound turned out to be something bad. But also, she didn't want to be left alone at the elevator by herself either.

As they got closer to the office, they noticed another noise coming from inside. A creepy hiss was what they could hear. Sean raised his gun, pointing it at the door.

All of a sudden something bumped into the door, and another angry hiss could be heard. Whatever it was that was in there, was trying to get out. Luckily the door opened inwards so it had to pull the door in order to open it. Apparently it wasn't smart enough to do so.

It bumped into the door again, but this time Sean was getting ready to fire. He guessed that it was around the middle of the door, but he wasn't sure since he didn't know how big the thing was. He kept picturing all kinds of ways the creature could look like.

He fired at the door once, but nothing changed. The thing inside the office kept on slamming itself against the door.

Sean kept his head cool, since the door didn't seem to take any damage even though it was being rammed by the thing on the other side. He aimed a little lower this time around, because he had a feeling that the creature wasn't very big. He kept picturing that it had four legs, so he thought it would be lower than where the doorknob was placed.

He fired twice this time around, rapidly just to make sure. He heard a shriek from inside and the bumping stopped. Then it sounded like the clicking started again.

"Is it dead?" Sabrina asked, listening closely. They could hear the clicking slowly fade away.

"No, but I think it's moving around in there." Sean whispered. He slowly moved his head closer to the door, trying to listen closer.

But out of nowhere a group of zombies suddenly crashed through the glass doors to the radio station. Sean fell forward in shock, pulling Sabrina down with him.

They fell into a pile of chairs and Sean hit his head on a chair leg that was pointing upwards. Sabrina landed with her back on top of a tilted chair.

Sean was struggling to turn around to face the zombies, but it was hard when surrounded by chairs. Finally he got on his feet and turned around, aiming his Colt at the nearest zombie's face. He fired a round through its skull and continued to the next.

Sabrina had gotten on her feet again too, and she quickly moved to the side when a zombie lunged at her. She shot it in the back as it had fallen to the floor.

Sean realized that they had to move fast, because they were being overrun by the zombies' sheer mass. There were tons of them pushing their way through the entrance. They were swarming the place.

He knew that he and Sabrina only had one chance to escape, and that was the elevator. He turned around and started running towards Sabrina who was standing in between him and the elevator.

"The elevator! Now!" He yelled at her, shooting backwards at the zombies.

She fired a few shots too, and then turned around. They ran around the corner and reached the elevator. But it hadn't been sent down yet. It still displayed that it was on the 2nd floor.

Sean frantically pushed the call button, as he looked over his shoulder. The zombies were still moving closer.

"Fuck!" Sean yelled in desperation and started shooting again.

Sabrina was yelling her lungs out in anger and frustration as she fired again and again.

_We're gonna die... _She kept thinking as the zombies moved in on them.

Every once in awhile a zombie got hit in the head and fell to the floor, but it didn't seem to matter, because then another one just took its place.

They were only a 6 feet from them now, and Sean had just run out of bullets. They both leaned against the elevator doors trying pointlessly to get further away from the advancing zombies.

But when they both almost had abandoned all hope, the doors slid open and they fell backwards into the elevator. Sean felt relieved, but it was still too soon celebrate. The doors hadn't closed yet.

Sabrina quickly raised her gun again and fired at the zombie in front. Then the doors started closing, but another zombie lunged at them and Sabrina fired at it. She only hit it in the chest so it only staggered it, but Sean was quick, so he raised his leg and delivered a powerful kick to the zombie's torso. It fell backwards with such force that it took the rest of the group with it.

The elevator doors then closed fully. Soon after the sound of the zombies banging on the hard metal doors could be heard. Then the elevator rumbled a little and it steadily started moving upwards to the 2nd floor.

Sabrina leaned herself at the back of the elevator and slid down to the floor. She then dropped the Beretta on the floor and covered her face with her hands.

Sean just stood there, almost starring through the closed elevator doors. His heart was still pounding rapidly and his breathing hadn't slowed down either.

When he had calmed down and come to his senses, he noticed a low sniffle coming from Sabrina. She was crying.

He sat down besides her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. She leaned her head against his chest, as he rubbed her back.

"It's okay… it's okay." Sean whispered to her, and kissed her softly on her forehead. "We're safe now…"

She turned and wrapped her arms around his waist. Sean tightened his grip around her, comforting her as well as he could.

She was really shaken by what had just happened. Sean was shaken too, and with good reason, because they had just been inches from dying. It was only sheer luck that they had escaped unscathed.

"Hold me, Sean…" She sniffled with a low voice. She felt Sean hugging her with both arms, and she buried her face even deeper into his chest.

Sabrina had never been so scared in her entire life. She had felt like all hope had left her body, she was sure she was going to die back there. Sure they had all been near death several times the past days, but it had never been this close.

_Stop crying! _She thought to herself, forcing the tears to stop. She was angry at herself, because she felt weak. She couldn't allow herself to break down now, she had to be strong and keep focused.

Sean could feel her grip around his arm tightening. She then looked up at him with teary eyes, and he looked at her. She leaned in and kissed him softly on his lips, closing her eyes.

The elevator then slowed down and stopped. It let out a ping and the elevator doors then slid open.

Sabrina dried her eyes in her sleeve, and then forced herself to get up on her feet again. She then bowed down and picked up the Beretta from the floor. She handed Sean her hand and helped him up on his feet.

"Thanks." He said in a low voice, and then they slowly moved out of the elevator with their guns ready.

As soon as they stepped out, Sean stopped when he saw a man standing to their left about 20 feet away. It was a tall and broad African American man, wearing black pants and a white business shirt. But what made Sean stop was the fact that the man was pointing a gun at him.

Sean wasn't about to return the favor, because then the guy might have fired his gun at him. But then Sean spotted Pat and Mike standing behind the guy.

"It's okay; they didn't bring anything with them." A woman's voice suddenly said. Sean didn't turn in the direction of the voice and neither did Sabrina. They knew that if they moved then they could get shot. Instead Sean tried to get a look of the woman, without moving too much.

Sean saw her to his right, when she stepped into his line of view. She was a middle-aged woman with semi long blond hair. She too was wearing business clothes. A grey tailored women's suit. Sean noticed the skirt had been ripped, making it shorter. He guessed that it might was self-inflicted, making it easier for her to move around. Of same reason she had probably thrown away the high heeled shoes that went with the suit too, because she was wearing a pair of dirty sneakers. She was also holding a handgun in her hand, but hers was lowered down to her side. Apparently she didn't feel threatened by Sabrina and his presence.

The guy pointing his gun at Sean then lowered it, and turned the safety on. It appeared to Sean that the guy was familiar with guns.

"Sorry 'bout that." The woman said, and stepped over to Sean and Sabrina. "We just had to make sure that nothing got up with you."

She then moved her gun to her left hand instead, and held the right hand out in front of Sean.

"I'm Natasha." She said in a welcoming tone with a smile on her lips.

"Sean." He said and shook her hand.

She shook hands with Sabrina afterwards, getting acquainted with her too.

"The guy over there is Alex." Natasha said, pointing at the man standing in front of Pat and Mike. Alex then nodded at them, and Sean nodded back. Sean guessed he wasn't the waving type of guy.

Alex stepped aside and let Pat and Mike past him. He figured that they wanted to talk to their friends. The brothers then walked over to Sabrina and Sean.

"We're glad to see you're okay." Mike said.

"Yeah, what the hell happened down there?" Pat asked. "We heard gunshots."

"We got overrun by zombies down there. We barely escaped." Sean said, looking at Sabrina who still looked a little shaken. Her eyes were still red from crying.

"I'm so sorry." Natasha then interrupted. "I sent the elevator down as fast as I could."

Sean nodded understandingly.

"It's okay." He said, even though he had been scared as hell. "We're all right."

Everyone went quiet for awhile, and Sean saw an opportunity to take a look around the room. Everything in there had been placed in one of the corners. Everything from chairs to tables. It looked like a giant bulldozer had shoved all the furniture into the corner.

Sean had an idea to why they had cleared the room so thoroughly. It was probably in case if a zombie or another unwelcome creature got up with the elevator. Then they would have plenty of room to fight it, and it wouldn't have any place to hide.

Sean also noticed several empty handgun cartridges lying on the floor. He recognized them as pistol casings, since they were shorter than revolver casings. Both Alex and Natasha's guns were pistols, so he guessed they were the clean-up crew. Maybe they were also the ones that made the bigger decisions in the place.

"So are you in charge of this place?" Sean couldn't help asking, aiming the question at both Natasha and Alex.

They both looked at each other.

"Yeah, I guess we both are." Alex answered with a deep voice. It was the first time Sean heard him speak. "People kind of left us the responsibility, since we were some of the first ones to get here."

"Okay." Sean understood.

Again there was some seconds' silence.

"So are we gonna stand here all day, or..?" Mike said, wanting to move on. He and Pat had been waiting in the same room with the two, until Sean and Sabrina had entered.

"No, of course not." Natasha said with a faint smile. "It's this way"

She pointed at the stairs by the elevator, as she started walking towards them.

"It's on the third floor." Alex said.

The group then followed Natasha's lead to the stairs, but they stopped when they suddenly heard something bumping into the shutter that was blocking the stairs leading down.

"Don't worry. They won't get through." Natasha said, assuring them that they were safe.

Sabrina grabbed Sean's hand, and squeezed it. Sean looked at her, putting his arm around her.

_Let's hope so._ He thought to himself, hoping he wouldn't have to fight anymore zombies. At least for the rest of the day.


	16. Don't Belong

**AN: Finally! I've finished the 16th chapter! Man, it took forever.  
Anyway, my excuse is that I was busy with christmas and new years. I started writing again after the holidays, and now it's done. Hope you will like it, because it was the hardest and the longest chapter I've ever written.**

**PS: Thanks to the people contacting me by e-mail, and over Myspace. I've really been enjoying our conversations. It has helped me a lot to talk about the story and other stuff, so let's continue in that direction. If anyone else feel like writing me, then please go ahead. I'll be more than happy to respond.**

**Also I've added something extra this time. I've been chatting a lot with Thanatos2009 lately and it turns out that he's very good at writing poems, so I've added one of his excellent poems this time. If you like it, then you should go check out his other poems on fictionpress.**

**Enjoy the latest installment of Chambered!**

**In the Darkest Hour  
**  
In the darkest hour when life is bleak

And our hearts and soul and mind are weak

The light shines through in blackest hour

To give us strength and give us power

To endure on through more heartbreak

And let us know what love's at stake

In the darkest hour when our soul is black

And there's little hope of coming back

A friend comes through and shows us light

To give us strength to endure the fight

A friend whose warmth's worth more than gold

True friendships last and now are old

In the darkest hour when you feel forlorn

And you look at life and feel it's scorn

A love comes through and beats our fright

It shows us hope and gives us might

To kill the shadows deep within

Our very soul is saved from sin

In the darkest hour the soul is replenished

And given the strength to go on and endure

And our pain has finally gone and vanished

We grow, we learn, and we mature

It shows we're human, weak yet strong

Our souls are pure, and were all along

_**Jesse aka Thanatos2009**_

A man who doesn't trust himself can never truly trust anyone else.

**Cardinal de Retz**, _Memoires_

**Chapter 16**

_Don't Belong_

Natasha opened a wooden door, and showed the group of friends inside. Behind them Alex had pushed a button, which caused the shutter, leading down to the 2nd floor, to close.

Sean looked back at him.

"I thought you guys said that they couldn't get through the first one." He then said, wondering.

"They can't. This is just a precaution." Alex answered him, cold and hard. "In case we're wrong."

Sean agreed and nodded.

"Yeah, better safe than sorry." He said, as he waited for his friends to go through the door. They followed Natasha inside, but Sean waited for Alex. He hoped to get to talk to him a bit. But that didn't prove to be easy, because apparently Alex wasn't very talkative.

"So, a radio station, huh?" Sean tried. "Not the place you would expect to be a good hideout."

Alex said nothing. He only grumbled a little, but he didn't speak a word. So Sean just let it go. If he didn't want to talk, then he wouldn't bother him. Sean just felt a little annoyed that Alex wouldn't talk, because then he couldn't get to know him. And if he didn't get to know him, then how could he trust him. If Sean was going to feel safe, then he had to trust the people surrounding him.

But there was something odd about the guy. He didn't seem scared or anything. Most people would be scared when having faced something as horrific as what Sean had experienced the past days. Even Pat was scared as hell, and he wasn't very easy to scare. Alex on the other hand seemed to keep his cool. Not letting his feelings interfere. Like a soldier. That's what Sean was guessing; that he was an ex-Navy SEAL or something similar. But he couldn't be certain.

Natasha on the other hand had seemed very welcoming and understanding, so Sean trusted her more. Of course he couldn't just judge people by their first impression, but he had to keep on his toes. When people are faced with extreme conditions like these, then they will do anything to survive.

Sean ignored it and just turned back to the others. He walked through the door, following them inside. It led into some kind of waiting room. It was fairly big and had doors leading into smaller rooms. Also one wall had windows revealing a studio on the other side.

In the waiting room they were met by the sight of about three people sitting in the couch and chairs. Everyone turned to see who had been brought up.

There sat two men and woman. One of the men was about 50 years or older judging by his grey hair and the lack of its volume. His upper lip was covered by a grey colored mustache and he too was wearing grey business-casual attire. But instead of wearing a shirt, he was wearing a white tank top. Like the kind you would wear under the shirt.

The other guy was much younger. Sean guessed he was in his mid-twenties. He had short blond hair and he was wearing a set of glasses with a black frame. This guy wasn't wearing the usual business attire as most had been wearing. On the other hand he was wearing jeans and a plain army green t-shirt. What really caught Sean's eye, was the guy's choice of shoes. They were red, which completely stood out from the rest of his outfit. It seemed a bit childish even for a guy at his age.

The woman sitting in the couch wasn't very old either. She looked just as old as the blond guy, but a bit more mature in her choice of clothes. She was wearing jeans too, but she was wearing a denim jacket in addition. When Sean noticed her face, then he was surprised. She looked very pretty, with her long blond hair and delicate face features. But she was apparently wearing what seemed like newly applied makeup, which seemed weird considering the circumstances.

_Who takes time to put on makeup if the world is ending? _Sabrina asked herself. She wasn't really a big fan of makeup. Sure she used it a little, but this woman seemed a bit too vain.

The three didn't take too long to get up on their feet to greet the newcomers. But not one of them seemed very happy at the sight of Sean and his friends. They all looked so sad.

Sean was the first one to go and shake hands with the strangers, getting their names too. He noticed a slight smile on their lips while introducing himself to them. His forwardness and openness had apparently surprised them, cheering them up a little.

After getting acquainted with them all, Sean now knew their names. The older man was named Eric, the woman Jenny and the blond man Terry.

_Terry?_ Sean thought, thinking that his voice had sounded oddly familiar.

"Terry? As in Terry Higgins?" Sean then asked, recognizing his voice as his favorite morning show DJ at RCFM radio station.

"Yep, the one and only." Terry answered and smiled.

"Nice. I thought I recognized your voice." Sean said, getting so enthused that he almost forgot everything about the past days events. "I listen to your show every day."

"That's great." Terry responded, glad to meet a fan. "You gotta be the first one here to recognize me, hehe." He laughed, feeling a lot less tense. He was glad that he had found someone to talk too. Almost no one had spoken to him the entire time he had been there.

They others looked puzzled at Sean and Terry, who seemed to hit it off pretty good. Sean noticed and let them in on who the guy was.

"Guys, this is _the_ radio DJ." He said and pointed at Terry who was smiling due to the compliment. "He's the only guy who plays any proper music these days."

"Heavy metal!" Terry said out loud and did the "horn" gesture with both his hands.

Sean's friends couldn't help smiling at the gesture. Normally they would have laughed, but they really weren't in the mood.

"Anyway, this is our guardroom." Natasha broke in. "We take turns to watch the monitor in the room behind me." She continued and pointed backwards.

"Monitor?" Mike then asked.

Natasha turned around and went for the door to the room behind her. Mike started to follow her, as did the others.

"There's a camera down in the lobby." She said and pointed at a little screen placed on a table inside the room.

"So that's how you know when to send down the elevator." Mike said, captivated with how clever it was.

"Yes, but the elevator controls are at the 2nd floor. It's a little troublesome, but it works." Natasha said and turned to leave the room again with the group right behind her.

"Terry, Eric and Jenny are currently responsible for watching the monitor. If they spot anything then they will call me and Alex." She continued, but then paused to check if anyone had any questions before she moved on with the tour.

Sean again thought about the transmission they had heard earlier; the reason why they had come to this place.

"Pretty clever with the radio transmission." He then said. "It seems like you guys are pretty organized."

"Yeah, I've been here for awhile, so I thought we needed to make it a little safer." Natasha replied.

"_You_ organized all this?" Pat asked, a little astounded.

Natasha nodded with closed eyes. "I'm an engineer."

Sean too was amazed by hearing this. He looked over at Terry, who he guessed had been there for the longest time since he worked there.

"It was all her." Terry said and pointed at Natasha, when noticing Sean's questioning look.

"That was very selfless of you." Sean then said, complimenting her. "You've saved a lot of lives."

Those words really touched her, and she started blushing.

"Yeah, well I just did what anyone else would've done." She said, looking down. She knew that not just anyone could've done what she had, but she didn't know what else to say.

Alex, who had remained silent for some time now, walked to the door leading to the stairs.

"We're not safe yet…" He said, as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Everyone went silent for awhile. Alex's comment had kind of killed the mood.

_What is his problem? _Sean asked himself. He couldn't quite figure him out, and it was really bugging him.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Natasha said, suddenly remembering something. "Before I show you up stairs to the rest, I'm going to ask of you to leave your guns here."

Both Sean and Pat stopped on their tracks, and looked frowning at Natasha. They weren't pleased to hear this, because until now their guns had kept them alive. And just as Alex had said, they really weren't safe just yet. To give up their guns now would make them really uneasy. But Sean understood why, because, unlike Pat and him, other people could get scared if they took their arsenal upstairs. Sean looked back at Pat and nodded implying that it was okay. They had no other choice but to trust their decisions.

Pat sighed, and placed the Benelli shotgun on a table Natasha was leaning up against.

"It's just a precaution. We don't want any accidents, that's all." She said, trying to comfort them. "And don't worry. You'll get them back."

Sean put his Colt pistol on the table too, and Mike and Sabrina followed his example thereafter.

Sabrina and Mike had both grown quite fond of the guns, but they realized they didn't need them right now. But still, they didn't feel too good about it.

"Good." Natasha said. "Then let's get upstairs. We'll find you a spot where you can rest."

She then showed them back to the stairs and Sean, being the last one to exit the room, waved to Terry and the others.

"See you guys later." Terry said, smiling.

Sean glanced one last time at the guns they had left on the table, before leaving the room. His Colt M1911, the Benelli M3 shotgun, the Beretta M9 and Pat's .357 revolver. He was just about to turn around and follow the others upstairs, but then he stopped. They had had two Beretta's with them. Pat's were missing.

Sean looked up at Pat who had noticed that Sean had stopped. He then winked at him, smiling.

_Pat, you sneaky bastard. _Sean thought to himself, smiling too.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Later the same night, Sean was lying on a carpeted floor on the 4th floor of the radio station, staring up on the ceiling. Everyone, besides him and his friends, was sleeping. He could hear the other survivors breathe heavily and even someone snore. There were about 15 other people in the room, so there wasn't a lot of space. But most people were lying in groups, as did Sean with his friends.

Natasha had showed them up there earlier, because she had guessed they were exhausted from their long walk. But she couldn't know that they hadn't been up for very long. There hadn't passed too many hours since they left the apartment building. So they were just resting.

Sean was using his backpack as a pillow, but it wasn't very soft. He eventually got tired of trying to find a comfortable way to rest his head, so he sat up instead. He looked around the room, to see if anyone else was awake. It was dark in there, because the lights had been turned off so people could sleep. But the light from the streets outside lit the room up a little, enough for him to see.

Most people looked asleep, but were awake. Not because they weren't tired, but because they couldn't close their eyes of fear. Sean knew the feeling. He too was scared of closing his eyes. Everytime he did that he kept picturing the terrible things he had seen. The disfigured faces of the zombies he had encountered, the crimson colored zombie from the gas station and Karen who had been killed by her own husband. The blood spurting from her neck as Lester had ripped out her artery. How it continued to pour out of her as he could just watch and do nothing.

Sean got a sickening feeling in his throat, like he was about to throw up. It left a bad taste in his mouth.

Sabrina, who was lying next to him, noticed how he sat and stared into the room and she placed her hand on his. It immediately caught his attention and he looked down at her. She was resting her head on her backpack, but she looked a lot more comfortable than Sean had been.

"What's wrong?" She asked whispering.

"Nothing." He answered and smiled, forgetting about the inner images he had just had. He turned his head away from her again. He lowered his head and covered his eyes with his hand, closing them for a second. But he couldn't keep them closed.

"I can't close my eyes either." She then said, like she had read his mind. "It all keeps flashing before them."

Sean squeezed her hand gently, letting her know that he was there for her.

"I'm just glad that the worst is over." She said, and sighed.

Sean gave her a slight smile. But he had a feeling she was wrong. It was far from over yet, and many things could still happen.

If the zombies would somehow find a way to get past the shutters, then they would all be doomed. They wouldn't stand the slightest chance against the seemingly endless horde of zombies, because they wouldn't have anywhere to go. The building weren't equipped with fire escapes. The only way out was down the main stairs, or jumping out the windows. The latter was not an option, because if the zombies came in, then they would be swarming the 2nd floor, and jumping from 3rd or 4th floor couldn't be too healthy.

Sean was also wondering about whether or not anyone would actually come to get them out of the city. Natasha had explained that the radio transmission would be picked up by the rescue team outside the city, and then they would send in a helicopter or two to save them all.

Sean wasn't normally a cynic, but he kept thinking that the chances of a rescue team would pick up a radio transmission in FM were quite slim. He didn't know much about radio waves and such, but he knew that FM transmissions were meant only for music radio. Unless the rescue team was thinking of trying to listen to the local radio station, then they wouldn't pick it up.

And they weren't even sure if there was a rescue team in the first place. The city was locked down and no one was allowed to leave until the situation was under control, but as things looked at the moment it didn't seem like the situation would be under control until everyone in the city was dead, including the zombies.

They couldn't just start letting people out, because they couldn't be sure that they didn't bring the virus with them. Once the virus gets out, then there's no stopping it. The people behind the isolation plan knew this. They couldn't risk the virus to spread beyond the city's limits. So Sean, his friends and the rest of the survivors were doomed; left to their demise.

Sean covered his face with both his hands, trying to clear his mind of thoughts for just a second.

_Stop overanalyzing everything! _He thought, commanding himself to stop thinking about it.

Suddenly he could smell the sharp stench of metal. It was so intense that he could almost taste it as he breathed in the air. He moved his hands away from his face and he noticed the stench fading.

Thinking that it was his hands that smelled, he tried to feel if there was something on them since it was too dark to see. He stopped when he felt something moist and sticky on his right wrist. He looked closer at it and then saw a dark stain on his forearm. Then he knew what it was, it was his wound that had opened again, and the blood had slowly seeped through the bandage.

Sean slowly got up from the floor, with the intention of heading out to the toilet to clean himself up.

"Where are you going?" Sabrina asked, oblivious to the fact that Sean was bleeding.

"It's my arm, the wound has opened again. I'm bleeding all over myself." He said, showing her his forearm.

"Shit." She said, surprised to see how bad he was bleeding.

In fact, she was _really_ surprised to see that he was bleeding at all. The bleeding had stopped a long time ago, and now he had suddenly been bleeding again.

Looking closer at the bandage she could see that it wasn't wrapped around his wound properly. It looked like someone had been scratching the wound repetitively, leaving it rather messy.

"Have you been scratching it?!" She asked, with a sharp tone.

Sean was just about to say no, but then he realized that he had in fact been scratching his arm the past hour. He remembered it had irritated him and then he had just started scratching, without thinking about it.

Sabrina could see by the look on his face that he was uncertain. If the mind was occupied by something else, then one could often start scratching an itch without being aware of it.

"I guess I _have_ been scratching it." Sean said, admitting it.

Sabrina already knew that, but she had just made _him_ realize it.

"Go wash it up, then I'll find you some new bandage, okay?" She said to him and sat up, starting to look through her backpack.

Sean nodded, and started moving towards the door to the hallway. Apparently, Sabrina and his little talk had caught some of the other survivors' attention and they were now sitting up, watching Sean as he walked for the door. He hoped that he hadn't interrupted anybody's sleep. Most of the others had been lying awake most of the time, but he would hate to be the reason that the rest couldn't sleep. So he stepped gently as he walked towards the door.

The light from the hallway blinded him as he slowly pulled the door open, making him pinch his eyes. Irritated he turned his head away. He noticed how the light spread out into the room as the door opened wider. It somehow reminded him of an old Japanese folding fan.

Sean quickly closed the door again when he left the room, so the light wouldn't bother anyone. In the light he could see that the blood was almost dry, meaning he wouldn't have to worry about it dripping all over the hallway.

He made his way down the hall to the toilet. Natasha had given him and his friends a thorough tour, so he knew where to find it. It was a small toilet with only room for one. Not a huge one, which bigger buildings usually are equipped with.

Lucky for him it wasn't occupied, so he went right in and flipped on the lights. He started to remove the bandage carefully, because he didn't want to rip open the wound again. The more and more he took off, the redder the bandage looked underneath. The last couple of layers were a bit wet and therefore stickier. He had to be extra careful.

Sean grimaced in pain as he had to pull a little hard with the last layer. But he eventually got it off without rupturing the scab. He threw the bandage into the garbage bin and looked at the wound. When he and Sabrina had looked at the wound earlier it had looked perfectly fine. The wound had almost closed. He had apparently been scratching it a lot.

He turned on the faucet and started to wash the dried blood off. The sink quickly went red as the blood mixed with the water. He rubbed the wound carefully to remove the worst of the blood around it. It wasn't too hard to get it off his skin, but if he had gotten any of it on his clothes then it would've been a different story. People wouldn't like washing their hands in a bloodstained sink, so he cleaned that up too

Sean then turned off the faucet and grabbed the towel there were hanging beside the sink. He wiped his hands dry and tapped the wound carefully with the towel. He managed to keep the snow white towel clear of red stains, so he hung it back up on the peg.

When he turned back to the door, he was met by Jenny, the woman he had met earlier in the waiting room on the 3rd floor. She had apparently been standing there for some time.

"Oh, hi Jenny. Didn't see you there." Sean said to her and smiled.

But Jenny didn't even look up at him; she was staring at his right arm. Sean noticed how white in her face she suddenly became and then it hit him. The wound didn't look like a cut or anything similar, it was actually quite clear that it was from a bite. She was seemingly aware of the fact that the disease spread through bites.

Jenny looked up at him with terror in her eyes. She then started moving slowly backwards and suddenly turned around, fleeing towards the staircase.

"Jenny wait! It's not what you think!" Sean yelled towards her, but she didn't listen. She just kept on running as fast as she could.

"Fuck!" Sean said to himself when she went out of sight. He had a bad feeling that he was going to get into some serious trouble if Jenny told everyone what she just had seen. They would probably isolate him from the others or perhaps even throw him out of the radio station.

_Relax…_ Sean thought to himself. _You'll just have to explain to them that you're somehow not infected and you'll be fine._

As much as Sean wanted to believe it himself, he wasn't sure if he was fine at all. He _was_ infected, no doubt. But the virus hadn't killed him yet for some reason. He was infected, although somehow unaffected. It had messed with his metabolism a lot, but he hadn't felt like he was dying.

Suddenly Alex appeared from the staircase. He rushed towards Sean with a gun pointed at him. Sean's heart stopped when he saw the black Beretta's barrel pointing straight at his face. Alex watched him carefully from a distance, noticing the wound on his arm.

"Don't fucking move!" He said to him in a very hostile tone.

Natasha appeared from the stairs too, along with some of the other survivors.

"He's infected." Alex said to them.

Everyone looked at Sean with insecurity, but as they saw the bite mark on his arm, their eyes almost went wide open of fear. Everybody knew what happened if you were bitten; you'd eventually die and turn into a zombie and soon attack the people around you, infecting them too.

Suddenly Pat appeared in the door to the room Sean had left earlier. He saw what was going on and so he quickly tackled Alex, seeing him as a threat to his friend. Luckily Alex didn't fire his weapon as a reaction to the tackle, because the gun's safety was on. Pat had already seen that before attacking him. He wouldn't have done anything if it could jeopardize Sean's life.

Pat and Alex went straight into the wall, hurting them both in the process. Alex dropped the gun as all air left his lungs.

They both got up really fast and it developed into a fight between the two. Patrick was bigger than Alex, but Alex wasn't small either. And apparently he knew how to fight. He quickly punched Pat in the face, followed by a punch to the stomach. Pat staggered a little, but continued to fight. He placed his fist in Alex's face real good, and Alex fell backwards into the wall.

Sean couldn't do anything but watch. No one else interfered either, as the two colossuses fought each other. Not even Mike, Pat's own brother. But then again, he was aware that Pat could handle himself.

Alex then lunged at Pat, trying to kick him in the torso, but Pat was quick and grabbed his leg. He threw him into the other wall in the small hallway, and viciously started to punch him in the face. Alex couldn't do anything, he was completely paralyzed. He just took hit after hit, leaving his face rather bloody.

Pat didn't punch him as hard as he could, because he didn't want to kill the man. And he was also a little tired. Alex had hit him pretty good, especially when he had punched him in the stomach. A lot of his stamina had gone away.

Sean noticed a man moving through the now crowded hallway with a shotgun in his hands. He recognized him as Eric, the older man he had met earlier. He was just about to run up to Pat and help him since Eric was heading his way, but before he could do anything, Pat was hit in the back of his head with the butt of the shotgun. He fell almost lifeless to the floor like a rag doll, unconscious.

Sean continued to run to his fallen friend, but he was met by the muzzle of the Mossberg shotgun Eric was holding.

"You stay right there!" He sneered at him.

Natasha also had her gun at the ready, as she watched Sabrina and Mike carefully. Apparently everyone had decided that Sean and his friends couldn't be trusted, and they treated them so. Natasha wasn't aiming at Sabrina and Mike, but she made it clear that she would shoot them if it came to it.

"Your friend is infected." She said to them in a surprisingly calm voice. "We need to keep him isolated. What I like to know now is if anyone else of you has been bitten?"

"They're fine. I'm the only one who has been bitten." Sean said to her, hoping to spare his friends from being inspected. None of them had been bitten so they had nothing to hide, but Sean was afraid they were going to need proof.

"Is this true?" Natasha asked, as if she somehow trusted Sean's words.

"Yes, Sean is the only one…" Sabrina said, sad to point the finger at Sean.

Natasha looked at Sean and then at Sabrina. She could tell they weren't lying, and she wanted to spare the others the humiliation of being searched for wounds.

"Alright, I trust you." She said, as she watched some of the other survivors help Alex to his feet. "But we need to isolate Sean until we have made a decision for what we are going to do with him."

Sabrina listened carefully, but she couldn't leave Pat unattended so she sat down next to him. He was out as a light, but his breathing was normal so there was no need to worry.

"Now we don't want anymore trouble, so if you just cooperate then everything is going to be fine." Natasha continued.

Sean wasn't happy about this. If they had to make a decision then the outcome couldn't in any way be in favor of him. But the way everything looked now then he couldn't do anything about it. He was powerless, his life were now in the hands of the other survivors.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sean had been ushered into a small office on the 3rd floor. The lights had been turned off, so he couldn't see much. They had tied his hands with gaffer tape too, so Sean was just sitting on the floor all alone in the dark.

He could hear them talking from the other side of the door. Judging by their raised voices, it seemed like they couldn't reach an agreement. It was hard to make out what was being said, but some of it he could hear.

"I say we shoot him." Someone said with a calm voice, ice cold.

"Are you crazy?!" A woman said. "You can't just kill him! Where's your humanity?!"

"I think we should vote!" A man said.

Then suddenly someone slammed a hand onto something hard, catching everyone's immediate attention. All of them went silent.

"Get your shit together!" A deep voice yelled. Sean recognized it as Alex's. "My very life as I knew it flew out the window the second my wife got eaten before my very eyes!"

He paused, but no one dared to speak.

"I'm sure I'm not the only one who has lost a loved one to these zombies." He continued. "I'm not going to sit here and wait for _him_ to start attacking any of us! He needs to be dealt with right now!"

Sean could almost feel him pointing at him through the door, as he heard Alex referring to him with despise.

Alex had a lot of hate towards Sean, almost as if it was his fault that Alex's wife had been killed.

Sean didn't know his story other than what he had just heard. But now it all made sense. Why he had been so closed and negative from the second he had met him. It was all because of his loss.

Now he had turned into an angry brute, looking for revenge. He was dangerous, but for some reason the other survivors listened to him.

"Can't we just let him go?" A calm voice suggested.

"So he can attack some other helpless soul when he turns?" Alex snapped back at the other man, almost mocking his suggestion. "No, we must kill him now, before it's too late."

Sean swallowed hard. Alex had made himself heard, and although people didn't like the idea, then they seemed to agree thinking it was necessary.

If it hadn't been for the fact that Sean was the one about to be executed, then he would probably had agreed with Alex. But Sean could somehow understand his anger and frustration. Sean would feel the same if Sabrina had been killed.

Even though Sean wanted to live then he slowly started to feel that maybe it was better if they just killed him. If he really was infected, then he would eventually turn and try to kill someone. In the worst case Mike, Patrick and Sabrina. He would rather die than to see them get hurt, and if he was capable of hurting them, then they would be better off without him.

And he was going in fact infected; he didn't doubt that for a second. All things pointed in that direction. The itching, the dizziness, how his blood sugar levels had been acting, everything indicated a significant change in his body. It had to be the virus slowly getting stronger inside him, taking him over. He _was_ going to turn, the only question was when.

He suddenly felt bad for walking around with his friend, knowing that he could had turned into zombie in their presence and tried to kill them. All the time he had been risking their lives, because he had been in denial. He had been too scared to realize the truth; that he was going to die. He felt like a coward.

_Maybe I do deserve to die… _He thought for himself, as a tear started to roll from his eye.

Even though Sean was feeling like letting go, he had freed himself from the gaffer tape. He had found a sharp edge on a metal bin and had used it to cut himself free. If he was going to die then he wanted to die free, not as a dog tied to a pole. But in a sense he felt like a dog that was a danger to its surroundings, and had to be put down.

Everyone had gone quiet on the other side of the door. They had reached an agreement.

Sean could hear someone walk up to the door, and he saw the doorknob turn. The door swung open and in stepped a broad dark figure. He couldn't see who it was, because he was blinded by the light coming from the other room. Sean immediately pictured the figure as the Grim Reaper dressed in black, coming to take him to the underworld. Or the executioner with his black hood.

Whoever it was, the person was holding a gun in his hand. Sean could from the silhouette alone determine that it was a Beretta. Its shape was fairly easy to recognize.

When the silhouette closed the door, Sean was no more blinded by the light. He could now see that it was not Death himself, but Alex who was standing there.

"We have reached an agreement, Sean." He spoke directly to him with a cold voice, but Sean already knew what he was going to say. "We can't let you live…"

Sean didn't say a thing. He just wanted to get it over with.

Alex was surprised to see that Sean didn't react at all to the bad news. Thinking that it hadn't sunk in or that he perhaps was in shock, he tried to say something to soothe him.

"I'm sorry…" He said, though he didn't mean it. He was satisfied by the thought of getting another zombie wiped off the map. He hated them and because Sean was infected he hated him too. Alex felt that Sean was just as bad as a zombie, so killing him would add just a little more comfort to Alex's own mind.

He walked up to Sean who was sitting on his knees with his hands on his back.

In Sean's eyes everything seemed blurry, because of his wet eyes. It was hard to see anything at all, so he just closed his eyes.

Alex raised the gun and Sean could feel the cold metal on his forehead, when he pointed it at him. Alex said some other things to him, but Sean didn't listen. He was in another world already.

Memories flashed before his eyes; the brothers and him goofing around, laughing and having the time of their lives. His mom and dad celebrating his birthday, making him breakfast on the bed. All the happy moments he could think of. He smiled, reliving the experiences again.

Alex was speechless when he saw Sean smile. He didn't understand. The kid was about to die, and he was smiling. It robbed him from some of the satisfaction, but then he decided just to get it over with. He wasn't going to delay it anymore, so he cocked the gun.

When Sean heard the click from the gun, all his memories stopped flashing before his eyes. He only saw one person before him now; Sabrina. Her beautiful face was almost glowing as she smiled at him. Her hair fluttered in the summer breeze, and her eyes looked deeper than ever. She looked like an angel.

That was when Sean came to his senses. He couldn't stand the thought of never seeing her beautiful face again, never to stroke her hair, or never to kiss her soft lips. He couldn't accept his death.

Alex got startled, almost scared when he saw that Sean opened his eyes. He looked up at him with fiery fury in his eyes. Then he did the last thing Alex suspected; he grabbed the gun.

Sean tightened his grip around the slide as he quickly pushed the gun away from himself. Alex pulled the trigger and the gun jumped in Sean's hands. The bullet hit a window behind Sean, leaving a hole in it without smashing it into pieces.

Then Sean quickly and with finesse pressed the magazine release button making the magazine fall to the floor with a metallic thud. Hereafter he released the gun from his tight grip and just stepped back.

Alex, angry to be caught of guard like that, quickly raised the Beretta at Sean again. He was furious by the fact that Sean had outsmarted him, but he still had the gun.

"You fool! There's still one in the chamber!" He yelled at him, mocking his attempt to disarm him.

"Are you sure about that?" Sean just said to him in a calm voice, sounding overly confident.

Alex suddenly felt insecure by Sean's confidence. But then he just smirked mockingly at him, thinking it was just another trick. He pointed the gun at his face and pulled the trigger.

Surprised to see that nothing happened when the cock slammed against the pin, he started examining the gun. Still not getting what was going on, he pulled the slide back and an empty cartridge flew out, leaving the chamber empty.

"How did…" Was all he managed to say before a metal garbage bin hit him right in his already bruised face. He fell to the ground with his hands covering his face, as he screamed in agony.

By holding the slide so tight as Sean had did, then it hadn't chambered a new cartridge as the gun normally does when fired. Sean had simply kept the slide from moving back to eject the empty cartridge and forth to chamber a new one. It was a trick very few people knew of, but Sean had learned it through studying guns for the most of his life.

Alex shook himself as he got up on his feet again, determined not to let Sean get away. He picked up the magazine and started to reload his gun again.

Sean knew he had to get away fast so he threw the garbage bin he was holding, at the already cracked window. It smashed through it, continuing out into the street, falling out of sight.

Sean started to run towards the window. He was on the 3rd floor, but it was his only chance. He had to jump.

Alex finally got the gun reloaded and he started firing at Sean, but because of the hit he had taken earlier, his aim wasn't very good and so he hit nothing but the wall.

Sean didn't stop to see where he could land, he had no time.

"NO!" Alex yelled in frustration, but Sean had already jumped face forward through the window, falling out of sight.


	17. Drowning in Despair

**AN: Again another chapter. It didn't take too long to write this time around. Had some difficulties trying to make it work, but I think it turned out alright. I hope you guys think the same.  
I'm glad that some of you reviewers have taken the time to contact me. It's great to get to chat with you guys.  
Also I'm glad to see that more and more reviewers are showing up. Thanks for reviewing and thanks to them who have been waiting around patiently for me to update. You guys are the greatest.  
****  
Anyway, enjoy the latest installment of Chambered.  
**

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

**Plato**, _Dialogues, Phaedo_  
_Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC - 347 BC)_

**Chapter 17**

_Drowning in Despair_

_Sean was floating._

_He was floating on water, resting his back in the surface. He could hear the water slosh around him. It echoed like he was inside a giant tank of some kind._

_His body rocked gently up and down, and he felt like he was weightless, like he was flying. He felt at peace, as he was lying there in the total blackness. Nothing could be more peaceful._

_But the peace was soon ended when the waves started beating heavier and heavier. Sean grew more and more uncomfortable as he was thrown back and forth increasingly violent. He wanted to leave immediately, so he called out for help. __The sound of his voice echoing out into oblivion was the only thing he could hear. No one heard his call._

_Suddenly a door opened above him, shining a bright light upon him. Out came a hand, reaching out for him, but not in a menacing manner. It was a helping hand._

_Sean couldn't see who the hand belonged to, but he could her Sabrina's soft whisper in his ear, telling him that everything was going to be alright. He reached up from the violent waves and touched the hand. He was just out of reach to get a firm grip around it, but he tried again._

_Just as he had gotten hold of Sabrina's helping hand, he felt hundreds of arms grapping him from behind. Hands were clamped around his arms, his legs and his head. Arms were locked around his waist and he could feel them pulling him downwards into the water. _

_Sean tried to cry out as hard as he could, but the water soon engulfed his entire body so he had to hold his breath. Through the sloshing surface of the water he could see the distorted image of Sabrina trying to hold him back. But he couldn't hold on to her anymore, or else he would drag her down with him. He let go of her._

_He could only watch her trying to reach him as he got pulled deeper and deeper into the abyss…_

Sean eyes shot wide open as he gasped for air, believing he was really going to drown. As soon as he had realized that he wasn't engulfed in water, he then noticed that he could still feel the arms pulling and tugging in his clothes and limbs.

When Sean had jumped out the window, he had been saved by the masses of zombies that were walking the streets below. He had landed on top of them surviving the fall, but he had been knocked unconscious by the impact. If he had landed on the pavement, then he would have been killed. However, he was not sure that he was going to survive his current situation either. He had gone right from the ashes and into the fire.

The zombies he had landed on had collapsed, but the other hundred were know trying to rip him apart. They were all trying to get a piece of him, each of them reaching out to get him. All their arms moving with madness and desperateness as like they hadn't been eating for weeks. He struggled to get them to let go of his arms, but it was pointless. He was too tired to fight back.

He looked around upon their hungry faces. They were drooling uncontrollably as they moaned and hissed, excited by the fact that they had been granted a free meal from above.

Suddenly a female zombie fell on top of him, landing on his stomach as he was lying on his back. Sean luckily braced himself by contracting his stomach muscles avoiding getting the air knocked out of him.

Though the woman falling on him appeared to be a bad thing at first glance, it turned out that she had, by falling through the group of zombies holding Sean's arm, knocked them over and so they had released it.

He quickly saw the opportunity to punch the female in her rotting face. He could feel how the flesh on her cheek squished as his knuckles hit it. As she had almost gotten on her feet again, the punch had had huge impact and she stumbled backwards knocking some zombies away from Sean's legs. He could now get free of their grasp, and so he rose to his feet, quickly looking for a means to escape the mass of zombies. But he was completely surrounded and the zombies were making it difficult for him to move. He had to get up high to get past them.

Sean noticed a dumpster about 20 feet away, but the problem was that there were about a dozen zombies between him and the dumpster. If he was going to have any hope of getting through them, he had to build up some momentum to push himself through the mass.

He turned around and shoved an incoming zombie backwards into the ones behind it, making them stumble backwards. Because they were standing so close, they had a hard time trying to compensate for the push. They were almost like dominoes, although they didn't fall completely, they only stumbled a little. But it bought him some time, and it cleared some space.

Now that there was space, he walked backwards and started running towards the dumpster and through the crowd of zombies. He managed to squeeze himself through the most of them, but they kept grabbing his clothes, making him slow down. He writhed himself free by swinging his arms around, hitting a lot of them with his elbows. He was almost there, only a few more feet.

Then suddenly his luck turned and he ran straight into a huge male zombie. He was about 6' 8" tall and looked like he weighed a ton. It felt like he had hit a brick wall, as he slammed into him. Sean fell on his end. Again he had to act fast; there was no time to complain about the pain running up his spine. He quickly saw an opening between the giant's legs and he threw himself under him. Before the giant had realized where Sean had gone, he had already gotten to his feet again continuing to press forward.

He knocked over a female zombie that was in his way as he reached the dumpster. He jumped up on it with his one leg, but when he started to pull the other one up someone grabbed it. He fell forward onto the hard metal dumpster, hurting his forearms. He looked back and saw a zombie attempting to bite his shoe. Sean kicked it in its face and it fell out of sight, letting go of his leg. He pulled himself back up, getting up on his feet again.

He wasn't safe up there, but he had an advantage, because he could see over the zombies' heads. From there he could perhaps find a way around them.

Sean scouted the area before him, but he couldn't seem to find a means to escape. He was completely surrounded by the zombies. They were covering a radius of about 50 feet in front of him, and there were no holes in the crowd anywhere. They all stood only inches from each other, slowly shuffling towards him.

He couldn't tell how many there were, but they were many. He had never encountered so many of them before, but the size of the crowd didn't seem to make it a more dangerous encounter than the smaller crowds he had seen earlier. Seeing as the crowd was so big and they were moving so close to each other, then they couldn't move very fast. Meeting a smaller band of zombies would be much more difficult, because they were free to move and hence deadlier. On the other hand, the crowd Sean was facing now was harder to knock down, since they were supported by the zombies around them. But that wasn't necessarily a downside for Sean. He could perhaps use their strength to his advantage.

He had thought about it, but it seemed like the only solution. No path before him and he couldn't climb the wall behind him either, so he had to go over the zombies somehow. He had to _walk _on them.

Sean knew it was risky and downright crazy, but he had no other choice. It was either that or staying on the dumpster waiting for them to crawl up to him.

He planned to step on their shoulders, since it seemed like the most stabile part. He also had to move fast, but without moving too fast since he had to tread carefully. If he missed, he would fall into the crowd and probably never get up again. Sure he had landed on top of them earlier and got away unscathed, but he had landed with more force that time. Also he had been unbelievably lucky that they hadn't closed in on him faster. It was almost a miracle when he thought about it. If he had just been unconscious for a couple seconds longer then he wouldn't be alive now. But Sean wasn't counting on another miracle. He had to make it this time, or else he was going to end up as zombie food.

Sean was still high on adrenaline, and in this state people tend to think they're invulnerable and can do anything. Sean felt like that, he felt like he could do this. He was determined to walk on them, no matter how crazy it was. He could do this; he was _going_ to do this.

Sean walked towards the crowd and placed his foot carefully on the first zombie's shoulder. Sean had picked that particular zombie, because it couldn't lift its arms up and grab him. The entire crowd was pushing so hard that the zombie was being pressed against the dumpster, fortunately for Sean, with its arms in between.

Sean leaned forward, moving his weight to the foot on the zombie. The zombie didn't succumb to the weight, so he decided to move forward to the next. His heart was beating frantically, but he wasn't paying attention to it. He was so focused on the situation that he could've had a knife in his thigh without noticing it.

The next zombie he stepped on wasn't as stabile as the first one and Sean almost fell forward, but he managed to continue. Since he had gotten out of balance, he figured he had to pick up the pace so he wouldn't have to worry about whether his weight affected the zombies beneath him. Also because he almost fell he got forced to speed up to regain the control.

It was like walking on wooden poles similar to those on a military obstacle course; only these ones gave into his weight when he stepped on them and if he fell he wouldn't get yelled at by an insane sergeant, but he would instead be eaten alive by the flesh-hungering zombies beneath him. But Sean didn't even give it a thought, because the adrenaline in his veins diminished his fear.

Even though he had sped up, it was like everything was going in slow-motion. He felt like he had ages to place his feet correctly, but in fact he only had a split-second to do it.

If the crowd had been just a little less dense, Sean hadn't been able walk over them. He had made a good choice by waiting on top of the dumpster, because the more he waited, the denser the crowd got. But the further he got, the closer he got to the point where the crowd started to dissolve.

He only needed to go a good 10 feet and then he would be home free, but unfortunately his luck had run out as he placed his foot on a small woman. The woman hadn't had any support from behind so she fell backwards, succumbing to his weight. Sean fell forward with his arms in front of him, and into a couple of zombies with full speed.

It didn't result in a very elegant landing, but the soft bodies of the zombies had cushioned his fall once again. He hadn't had time to roll into the fall or anything, so he landed hard on top of them, knocking the air out of him. He gasped for air, but it was like his lungs didn't accept the oxygen he was trying to breathe. But when they did accept it, it was almost like as he had gotten too much air down his lungs. It resulted in him coughing violently as he almost swallowed the air around him.

He rolled away from the two zombies he had landed on, and on to all four as he coughed up saliva. Even though he was almost paralyzed by the fact that he couldn't breathe, then he was still trying to get away. He crawled on his knees and hands away from the crowd behind him, but he wasn't completely safe yet since there were still some zombies scattered around in front of him. Still heaving for air, he got up on his feet and started moving forward.

Sean managed to dodge a lunging zombie's grasp as he started running. It stumbled forward almost falling, because of all the power it had put into the lunge. He looked back at it as he continued, but he then looked further behind him and he saw the huge ocean of zombies he had just stridden across. They had all turned around facing in his direction, moving towards him.

_Oh God, this never ends! _He thought, as he started running faster.

He turned his head back around to see where he was going, but suddenly he ran into something, knocking it over and falling down with it. He landed right on top of a body, and he guessed it was female since he could feel breasts against his face. Normally most men would've loved to be lying on top of a beautiful woman, but Sean felt disgusted by it, since it was a zombie he had landed on.

He looked up from the zombie's chest and stared directly into the face of the undead woman. She had pretty blond hair and a nice figure, but that was where the beauty ended. Her eyes were as pale and blank as the moon on the sky, and her face was badly disfigured. Her nose was missing, along with her upper lip. Sean could see her exposed nose bone and even into the bloodied nostrils and her teeth almost looked black from the blood that covered them. She looked like someone had been devouring her face; he could even see teeth marks around her nose and mouth.

Sean could vaguely see the pupils in her milky eyes, but it was obvious that she was staring directly at him. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. He had expected her to hiss at him or moan, but instead a creepy gurgling sound came from down her throat. Every hair on Sean's body stood up when he heard it. It was like nails to a blackboard, only this was much more horrific.

Before he could push himself away from her, she suddenly locked her arms around him pulling him down again. Sean tried to get away, but she was too strong and he was too weak from the fall he had had before. He couldn't push himself back up no matter how hard he tried. He writhed and tried to pull her arms away, but he couldn't get a proper grip since she was too close him. Sean couldn't really see anything either since the zombie held him down, smothering him in the dirty and smelly shirt. It reeked of blood and other awful things he couldn't quite figure out and he almost couldn't breathe through the horrible stench.

"Aaargh!!" Sean screamed in pain as she bored her nails into his back, diminishing his limited strength even more. She then went for his neck, but Sean was fast and managed to grab her blond hair with both his hands, holding her head back. But her hair also slipped out of his fingers, because of his lack of strength. Instead he moved his one hand up to her face and placed his thumb in her eye. He pushed the finger deep into it, hoping the pain would stop her.

Sean stomach turned as he could feel the eye get squished around the tip of his finger as it went deeper into her eye socket. But the attempt didn't have the effect he had hoped for. She didn't even flinch by the fact that he had just pushed her eye into her head. Sean then went for the other eye, moving his other hand up to her face. He pressed his thumb into that eye too, only with more force than before. That made her loosen her grip around him, and Sean seized the chance to get himself out of her grip. But that was another failed attempt. Her boney hands were still keeping him in a firm grasp, but Sean had managed to sit up, getting an advantage. He could now move his arms freely, giving him the upper hand.

To get free Sean had to kill her, it was the only way. He didn't hesitate for one second, even though he felt bad for what he was about to do. It was either her or him. Sean pulled the female zombie's head up and then he slammed it into the asphalt as hard as he could.

"Aaaaarrrgh!!" He cried out as he smashed the back of her head into the ground again and again. He continued until he hardly could lift his arms anymore. When they gave up completely he stopped and released her head. It fell to the ground with a squishy thump. Sean had cracked her skull massively and he wouldn't be surprised to see if the back of her head was completely gone. But his plan had worked, she had let go. He pulled her hands of his shirt and they fell to the ground. She wasn't moving at all, she was dead for good.

Sean just sat there breathing violently as his heart pounded heavier than ever. It was beating so hard that it felt like someone was kicking his ribs from the inside. Sean didn't realize, but he also had an insane look in his eyes. He looked like a bloodthirsty beast that had just finished off its prey. He looked at his bloodied hands as he wondered where all that anger had come from. He just realized that he had just ended the life of that woman with his bare hands, and he felt almost scared by the fact that he was capable of doing something like that.

_Survival really does bring out the worst in people…_ Sean thought as he stared at the pool of blood that had emerged from the back of the zombie's head.

Then he remembered about the zombies that were closing in on him from behind and around him, and he quickly jumped to his feet. He turned around to see how close they were, and to his surprise they were only a few feet away from him. They lunged towards him, but Sean dashed forward and away from them. He then started running and he gradually picked up the pace until he was running as fast as he could. His legs were going up and down like the pistons of an engine, as he ran and ran. He felt like an athlete sprinter breaking a record as he continued to run. He was a steam train moving with an incredible speed, nothing could stop him now. Adrenaline was pumping through his body, fueling his muscles with great strength. He didn't even feel the stitch in his side.

Sean didn't look back; he knew he was far away from the massive crowd. But he didn't stop running, he couldn't. He had to get as far away as possible. Where he was going he didn't know, but it didn't matter. His legs would guide him to safety.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Back at the radio station Sabrina and the other two had been ushered into a small room to keep them away from the others. The other survivors had figured that they probably had to isolate them until they had calmed down. They hadn't locked the door so they weren't being imprisoned, but a couple of the others were guarding the door.

Sabrina was furious. She had demanded to know what was going to happen to Sean, but they didn't tell her anything. Mike had also gone angry and he had eventually turned to violence. He had thrown some chairs around in frustration and he had yelled at the other survivors, threatening them into telling him what they intended to do with his friend. They had both scared them all, and to avoid a crisis they had eventually placed them in the room they were sitting in now.

Pat had been unconscious the whole time, but he was slowly regaining consciousness. In fact it now seemed more like he was just sleeping. He was lying on the floor with his head resting on Sabrina's lap. She was also sitting on the floor since there was no furniture in the room. Mike was sitting in the corner with his knees up, resting his arms on them. His head was resting on the wall behind him, as he stared into the grey paint on the wall beside him. He looked like he was about to give up all hope, but he hadn't turned to despair just yet. He was still furious, but he was too tired to express his anger.

Even though they had been sent in to the room to cool down, Sabrina was more furious than before. She grew more and more impatient by the second. She felt like grabbing a gun and start to interrogate one of the survivors, just to get to know what they were doing to Sean. She was afraid that they were going to kick him out of the radio station, leaving him to fend for his own. If that was the case then she would leave with him, even though their chance of survival would drop. And she was sure that Mike and Pat would think the same.

But then she came to another conclusion; they could be planning to kill him. If they believed he was a threat then they probably wouldn't just let him loose. Then they would just be adding another zombie to the masses outside. She couldn't stand the thought, but she had to admit that it seemed more logic.

She wanted to be wrong, but she knew that Sean was infected. Why he hadn't turned into a zombie yet she didn't know, but then again she didn't know anything about the virus, if it was a virus at all. It wasn't like any virus she had ever heard of before. It didn't seem like a thing the nature could create. More like something that had been engineered. She shuttered the thought. She had to focus on the situation at hand. She couldn't just sit by and watch. She had to do something.

Suddenly she heard someone outside the door talking. It was a female voice and she was probably talking to the ones guarding the door. The voices also seemed to have gotten Mike's attention, since he had turned his head to look towards the door. They both listened carefully.

After awhile someone opened the door and Mike got to his feet immediately to meet whoever got through the door. Sabrina would've gotten on her feet too, but she had to keep Pat's head under support, so she stayed on the floor.

Natasha was the one who had opened the door. She stopped to look at them and then she stepped inside closing the door behind her. She had a sad look on her face, like she was about to tell them some really bad news.

Natasha looked like she was just about to say something, but then she hesitated. She looked down to avoid looking at them.

"Wh-what is it?" Mike asked, getting impatient.

She still didn't answer. She just looked down on the floor.

Sabrina was getting really pissed. She felt like jumping up from the floor and starting to shake it out of her. But then Natasha decided to speak by herself.

"Sean is…" She started out, but then she changed her mind. She knew it was a lie, but she couldn't get herself to tell them the truth. "We decided to let Sean go."

She felt terrible for lying, but to explain to them what really had happened was going to make them even more furious and despaired. But then again, they would probably want to leave and join him. That was why they had planned to tell them not to do it, because of something Sean had said before he had left the place. But Natasha couldn't get herself to tell another lie, and especially not a horrible lie as that one.

Coming to her aid Alex suddenly stepped into the room. He had been listening on the other side of the door, and he had heard how Natasha had had a hard time telling them what had happened.

"Look… I know you probably want to follow him, but Sean had a final wish before he left." Alex explained to them with a very sad voice. "He told me to tell you not to follow him…"

Sabrina's heart almost stopped when she heard it. She couldn't believe it. She and Mike were dead silent. They couldn't get a word out.

"I know it's hard to understand, but he didn't want to hurt anyone. He left to keep us all out of harm. He acted very selfless. The man is a hero…" Alex lied as good as he could. He didn't have any trouble with it, because he thought he was lying for a good cause. They would be doomed if the decided to follow him, so he actually did them a favor telling them to stay.

Suddenly Natasha left the room. She couldn't stand it anymore.

"I'm sorry…" Alex told them, as he slowly backed out of the room to give them some time to grieve. He figured that they needed to be alone for awhile.

Mike just stared into nothing as he slowly slid down the wall and on to the floor. He couldn't stand up anymore. His legs had suddenly gone weak, because of what they had just been told. He couldn't believe it either. His best friend had just left him. He felt anger towards Sean for accepting his own death and for leaving without talking to his friends first. They could've talked him out of it, making him stay. But then again, the other survivors had decided that he couldn't stay. Still Mike felt that something was wrong. Sean was a very selfless guy, but he put his friends before anything in the world. He would've asked to see them before he left.

Sabrina started crying. Mike noticed it right away, so he moved over to her side and put an arm around her.

"I don't understand… Why would he leave without saying goodbye?" She managed to say, through her sobbing.

"I don't know… It doesn't seem right." Mike then said to her.

Sabrina stopped crying and wiped her eyes.

"What do you mean?" She asked, even though she was thinking the same as him.

"I don't trust that Alex guy. He's lying."

Sabrina looked down, agreeing with him.

"But what is he trying to hide? Is Sean still alive or…?" She asked, wiping her eyes again.

"I don't know… I hope Sean is alright." Mike said and looked down.

What he _did_ know was that there was something shady about Alex's story. He couldn't quite figure out what it was he was hiding, but he intended to find out.


	18. Movie and Dinner

**AN: I started writing this chapter about two weeks ago and now it's finished as you can see.  
It's actually possible for me to write an entire chapter in two weeks, but... I usually need a week or two, before I start writing, to think about what's gonna happen in the chapter. Yeah, I don't know what's gonna happen in the next couple of chapters, I just come up with the stuff as I write it. So I usually need a couple of weeks to get some ideas to what's gonna happen. As I get all these ideas bottled up, then I start writing. So the process is actually split into two: planning and writing.  
Well, that's how it works. And that's why it takes so long.**

**Anyway, it's a little longer than usual, but I think it turned out okay. Enjoy :)**

I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.

**Aeschylus**, _Agamemnon_  
_Greek tragic dramatist (525 BC - 456 BC)_

**Chapter 18**

_Movie and Dinner_

Sunday  
September 27th, 1998

The smell of week old lettuce and other greens filled Sean's nostrils. It was an awful sour smell and if he wasn't too exhausted to care, then he would've covered his nose. He couldn't cover his nose anyway, because then he wouldn't be able to breathe properly seeing that he was still out of breath. He needed every airway to be clear.

Sean had collapsed in a pile of trash in an alley behind a restaurant. He was resting, lying on the soft plastic bags filled with different greens that had been thrown out several days ago. It probably wasn't the best place to hide, but he didn't care anymore. He had to rest and it had seemed like a good place to lie down.

He didn't know how long he had been there, but he was going to stay until he had caught his breath again and maybe also until the piercing stitch in his side had faded. He hadn't felt it before he had decided to take a break. The pain had probably been soothed by the adrenaline in his veins, but now that he wasn't high on adrenaline anymore the pain was unbearable. And it was not only his side that hurt, it was also his lungs and his throat. It seemed to hurt everytime he breathed in.

He had been running for quite a long time, so it was no wonder that he was in pain. He couldn't remember when he last time had been running for so long. He didn't know for how long or how far he had been running. He didn't even know where he was. He had just kept running until his legs couldn't carry him any further. Now he was just lying there, staring up between the buildings and up at the sky. It was black as coal and there were no stars in sight. He wondered if it was because it was cloudy or just because the stars were out of his sight.

Suddenly Sean could hear something. He immediately stopped breathing and held his breath. He couldn't hear anything other than the squeaking sound of the plastic bags against each other.

He sat up and listened again.

Now he could hear it again. He couldn't quite distinguish the sound and what it could be coming from, but it was clearly getting closer. As the sound came nearer and nearer, he became more and more aware of what it was; a helicopter.

Sean jumped to his feet and looked up at the sky, hoping to get to see the aircraft. His view was of course blocked by the buildings so he moved out to the street still looking up. He couldn't tell where the sound was coming from, because the sound bounced off the many buildings around him so it sounded like it was coming from everywhere. But judging by how loud the sound was the helicopter had to be close. Sean went past a burning car as he searched the sky. He kept half an eye on the street too so he wouldn't get surprised by a zombie or worse.

He turned around to look the other way and there he saw it. It was flying low heading in his direction with high velocity. Sean started waving his arms up and down trying to get them to spot him. It was rather pointless as he was standing quite low between buildings and the helicopter was flying way too fast for them to see him, but he had to try.

Sean got a good look of the helicopter while standing there. It didn't look like a rescue helicopter. More like a military one, the type that carried soldiers to the battlefield. It had a big sign on the side; an umbrella. He recognized it right away.

_What's Umbrella doing here?_ He thought to himself as he slowly stopped waving.

As he had expected the helicopter just blew right past him. He had to cover his ears for the noise from the propeller was very loud. Papers and other light debris that were scattered around on the street got thrown around by the thrust of the rotor. Even the fountain down the street almost stopped at the gust of air.

Sean then realized where he was; he looked over at the opposite side of the fountain, on the other side of the street, and saw the movie theater, and when he followed the building up to where he stood he saw the "Grill 13" sign above the entrance to the restaurant. He had been there many times before, hanging out with his friends. They used to come there to watch a movie and then grab some to eat afterwards or sometimes before, depending on how late a show they were going to see.

At first Sean hadn't recognized the place, because it was pretty much beyond recognition. The entire street was a mess; burning cars here and there, garbage lying around and all kinds of debris. Rubble and metallic parts covered the ground making it difficult to walk around. The street was in such a mess that a car couldn't even get through the area. The streets were pretty narrow as it were, so it was pointless to try and get through downtown in a car if it was like this in the entire quarter. He was better off on foot, though his chances of getting attacked were bigger.

Now that he came to think of it; he was unarmed. He didn't have a gun or anything. He didn't even have his bag, or his jacket for that matter. He was practically naked. So before he moved on, his top priority would be to get supplies. He needed some kind of weapon or else he wouldn't last long, and some food could be a good idea too.

Sean turned to the restaurant as it was very possible that he could find both in there. But after the first step towards the entrance he stopped. He realized he was missing something very important; his insulin.

"Fuck!" He whispered to himself as he started thinking. He wouldn't be able to go far without it, so he needed to find some kind of medical institution very quick. But he couldn't go that long without something to keep his blood sugar in checks. Sean then quickly checked his pockets and to his relief he found half a pack of sugar tablets. They were only going to do him good if his blood sugar levels were low, not if they were too high. So he had to be careful using them, or else he could get worse. Unfortunately he didn't have his glucose-level tester with him, so he couldn't monitor his blood sugar. He could only try and tell by feeling.

There weren't too many tablets in the pack; only five left. They weren't going to last long, but they had to last till he could get some insulin. The problem was that he couldn't be too active, because then his levels would drop faster, like now, after he had been running a lot. He felt like taking one now, but he wanted to go check the restaurant first. And it was not like he was completely exhausted, so he figured that it was okay to wait a little longer.

Sean placed the pack of tablets back in his pocket and continued towards the double door of the restaurant. He looked inside through the windows before he decided to push one of the doors open. It seemed abandoned, so he just went right in. He carefully closed the door behind him so nobody would hear him. He listened carefully himself, but he couldn't hear anything other than a constant hissing noise coming from the kitchen area.

Sean knew the place, so he knew that he wouldn't find anything of use in the dining area. If he was going to have any hope in finding something, then he had to look in the kitchen. He imagined that there would be plenty of knives and probably a medical kit or two. He needed to get a dressing for his wound or else it could get inflamed. He had also sustained a few scratches and cuts during his time battling the zombies back at the radio station, so maybe if he could use some plasters too.

Sean could still hear the hiss from the kitchen. He thought he might as well investigate it while he was going out there. He couldn't see anything dangerous through the counter opening in the wall that was separating the kitchen from the dining area. They used to place the finished dishes on there so the waitresses could bring the meals to the customers. But there were nothing to see on the other side, so he slowly walked out there.

The minute he entered the kitchen he was met by a strong smell. At first he thought it smelled like leek or something similar, but it was too strong to be just that. But then he realized that the smell was related to the sound he had heard. The stoves in the kitchen used gas and one of the gas containers at the far wall was leaking. Those containers probably had propane or butane in them and those gases were odorless, but to make the gases detectable during leaks they were mixed with some kind of gas that had a strongly disagreeable odor. Sean couldn't remember where he had learned it from, but it was certainly a good thing that he knew about it. The smell was almost nauseating, but it was way better than carrying a canary around, he thought lightheartedly.

Sean moved further into the kitchen, keeping an eye out for useful items. He had to be careful, because a single spark could ignite the gases and blow the whole place up. Not to mention the fact that he also were in danger of getting poisoned by the gas. To try and avoid that, he decided to cover his mouth and nose with his t-shirt, but he also did it to cover the nauseating stench. His t-shirt didn't smell much better though. It smelled like sweat and blood, but it was more tolerable than the gas.

Sean figured that the gas was leaking, because the containers had been breached, but he wanted to see if he could turn them off somehow. With a little luck then maybe the valve had only gone loose and needed to be turned back into place.

As he walked towards it, he found out that he had to go that way anyway, because the only way into the cooking area was past the gas containers. The smell got stronger and stronger the closer he got, and the gas felt cold. The gas was visible because it was below freezing point, so he had to be careful he didn't get frostbite.

Sean found some cloth hanging next to a sink, and he used this to cover his hand while he turned the small valve. The gas was seeping out from around the thread of the valve, but unfortunately it was stuck. There was frost on the thread, making it impossible to turn. The gas had apparently been leaking for quite some time and it had cooled it down making it freeze. Sean tried with both hands, but again without luck. Maybe if he used something to knock the ice off with, but then again, that could create a spark. Instead he decided to tie the cloth around the valve to keep the cold gas from spraying out into the room. It didn't stop the leak, but it was better than nothing.

Now he could start searching the kitchen. He looked around to get a good view of the place and he quickly spotted the medical box hanging on the wall next to him. He opened the little door and looked inside. There wasn't much inside, only a bunch of plasters and some bandages. It didn't seem like the box got refilled very often. It was quite reckless of the owners of the restaurant in Sean's opinion, but there was nothing he could do about that now, he just had to settle for what he had found. He took out the plasters and put them in his pocket. They could come in handy later if he sustained any small cuts or scrapes. Not that they were going to do much good, but better safe than sorry. He thought about using some of them on the scrapes he had gotten from falling, but they weren't that bad. They weren't bleeding so it wasn't really necesarry.

He only needed one bandage for his arm, and so he placed one in his pocket and the other on the table before him. He quickly washed his arm in the sink next to the table and wiped it with a cloth afterwards. He then grabbed the bandage and unwrapped it from its sterile wrapping. He applied it to the wound and tied it tight around his forearm. Now that he was all patched up he could start searching for the next thing; a weapon.

There were plenty opportune weapons to be found, but Sean had a hard time figuring out what would be best for his given situation. A frying pan wouldn't deal a whole lot of damage and it was hard to swing. The same with the pots; they were too heavy. A knife on the other hand was a good weapon, but it lacked range. Also he didn't think a stab to the throat would stop a zombie, because they didn't seem to feel pain. So he couldn't kill a zombie fast with a knife. He needed something with more impact power, like a club or something.

Sean had figured that there was a crowbar lying around, because there was a hatch leading down to the basement. The hatch didn't have a handle, so it had to be opened with a crowbar or something similar, but he hadn't come across such a thing.

Sean's head was starting to pound heavily because of the gases. His t-shirt didn't keep him entirely from breathing it in, and so he started to feel the effects. He figured he had to get out of there as soon as possible, but he had to find a weapon first. He couldn't leave without something to defend himself with.

Thinking it was pointless to continue searching in the kitchen area, he started moving towards the back exit. There was a small table in the end of the hallway, so he hoped there was something there. It also gave him a chance to get away from the gas containers for some time.

Sean's face lightened up when he spotted a red case on the wall next to a fire extinguisher. In the case he could see the perfect weapon through the glass. It was a red headed fire axe with a long yellow shaft. He didn't hesitate two seconds and so he carefully punched the glass in making it break. He grabbed the axe by the shaft around the head and pulled it out.

It was fairly heavy, so he had to use two hands to swing it. But this was a much better weapon than the other things he had found. It had a good range, it was heavy which meant lots of impact power and it had a fairly sharp cutting edge and a pick-shaped pointed poll on the opposite side of the head. It could definitely put down a grown man in one strike. The downside was that it was slow to swing, because it was so heavy. So he had to be certain to hit what he was aiming for, and he should avoid using it when surrounded. After swinging the axe he would be left open for an attack.

Now that he had a weapon, he could leave the gas filled restaurant. He was just about to go to the backdoor and leave the place, but then he remembered seeing a payphone in the dining area of the restaurant. Maybe he could call Pat's cell phone from there. There was a possibility that it wouldn't be working, but it was worth a shot. He ran back through the kitchen and into the dining room, spotting the payphone by the entrance. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only thing he spotted. Outside the double doors, Sean could see a small horde of zombies shuffling by. He stopped on his tracks and remained completely still. If they saw him then he was in trouble.

If he wanted to make that call to Pat, then he had to hurry. He slowly walked into the booth and picked up the receiver. He listened for a tone and luckily there was one, so the phone wasn't dead. Now he just needed some coins to make the call. He quickly checked his pockets instinctively, though he knew he didn't have any on him. It wasn't the end of the world though, because he could just go to the cash register and take some change there. In places like this there were always left a few coins in the register, so it shouldn't be a problem.

What could be the problem though was how he was going to get to it without being seen by the zombies. Hell, he didn't even know if they were even able to see. Their eyes were white and empty like that of a blind eye. Maybe they relied solely on their hearing and other senses. He wasn't going to take any chances, so he kept his head low as he slowly moved to the counter, still with the fire axe in his right hand.

He made it to the counter and so he hid behind it. He carefully looked up at the cash register and found the eject button. When he pressed it the register made a ding sound and the tray shot out. Sean checked to see if the zombies had heard the sound, but they didn't seem to have noticed anything. They were still shuffling slowly past the doors.

He got up from his knees, but still keeping his head low, and looked into the tray. There were a few dimes and some quarters lying in it. He grabbed them all, thinking that they ought to come in handy if he needed to make a call from a payphone again later. He then moved back to the payphone as stealthy as before.

Sean laid down the axe and put a quarter in the slot and dialed Pat's cell phone number. He could hear the dial tone beeping in the receiver.

He looked out the front door to see where the zombies were at, but he couldn't see them. He assumed they had just walked past him.

The phone dialed again, this time for the third time.

"Come on… come on…. Pick it up." Sean whispered to himself, getting impatient. He looked out at the street again, still nothing.

It dialed for the fifth time.

Suddenly Sean heard a bump and he immediately looked at the double doors. A zombie was pressing its face against the glass, looking directly at him. It had somehow spotted him and was trying to get inside.

He held onto the phone for a little longer. He just needed to let his friends know that he was alright.

"Damn it, Pat! Pick up the goddamn phone!" Sean yelled into the receiver, like shouting was going to help Pat get the message.

Suddenly the doors opened and in fell a couple of zombies. More followed after, stepping on the ones crawling on the floor. Sean hung up the phone and grabbed his axe. He moved out of the booth and ran towards the kitchen before the zombies could come near him. They were easy to outrun, so he had nothing to worry about. He could just run to the back exit past the kitchen and then he would be out of trouble.

He ran past the gas containers, where the cloth he had used to cover the valve had fallen off, leaving the gas spraying out into the room as earlier. It didn't matter though, because he was going to leave the place anyway. And so he did. He ripped the door open and ran out of the restaurant closing the door behind him again.

"Phew…" He sighed. _Safe again… for now…_

xxxxxxxxxxx

Back at the radio station Pat had regained consciousness, and Mike and Sabrina had told him about the situation. About how the "management" had decided to isolate them from the other survivors, and how Alex had lied about how Sean had decided to leave the place.

He didn't believe it for one second either. He knew Sean and he knew that he would never do something like that. He was a great man who would sacrifice himself for anyone, but he would never leave his friends behind like that. It didn't add up.

"There's only one way to find out." Pat said as he was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. "If Sean really decided to leave, he would've taken his medicine with him."

Sabrina looked at Pat. His face was badly bruised and he was bleeding from his lips.

"Of course! If we just find our backpacks and check them for his medicine, then we'll know if he really left or not." She said.

"But what if we find it… Does that mean that they threw him out of here, or… killed him?" Mike said. He didn't like the thought of it, but unfortunately it was a possibility.

Pat felt the anger rise up in him. Sean was like a brother to him and Mike. The three of them had always been friends, and he couldn't stand the thought of what Alex might have done to him.

_If he has even touched Sean, then I'm gonna kill him. _He thought, as he clenched his fist in anger, but he was forced to calm down when a wave of pain hit his head. His concussion had relapsed due to the shotgun butt he had been hit by earlier, so his head was pounding. Sabrina noticed him flinch as he placed his hand on the back of his head, feeling the swelling he had gotten.

"You shouldn't move too much, Pat." Sabrina advised him. "Your concussion has worsened, so you need to rest."

"Yeah, I know… It's just that I feel so useless..." He said and looked down.

She walked over to him and sat down besides him.

"It's okay… Just leave the hard work to us, okay?" Sabrina comforted him and he nodded. "I'm gonna leave you here with Mike and see if I can somehow get to our backpacks."

She looked over at Mike to confirm that he was okay with staying.

"Yeah, I'll look after him." He said understanding, and crawled over to his brother.

"Okay, just keep him still. I'll be right back." She said as she got to her feet.

She knocked on the door, signaling the people on the other side of it that she wanted to get out. It didn't take long for them to get to the door and so they opened it. A skinny man with brown hair and glasses opened it half way and looked in at Sabrina.

"What is it?" He asked firmly, but in a kind manner.

"Pat here is wounded and he needs to get some medical attention. He has a concussion and he needs some pills and also some bandages if possible." Sabrina explained to him thoroughly.

The man looked back at the other people sitting in the sofa behind him. It was obvious he didn't know what to do.

"Look…" Sabrina said, fishing for the man's name.

"Tom." He answered.

"Right… Tom… I have a medical kit in my backpack, so if you could just let me out so I can go get it." She suggested.

He looked back at the others again, but they seemed to be occupied by something else.

"I'm not really supposed to let you out. Alex will kill me if he finds out."

Sabrina sighed.

"Who decided to make that guy the boss of this place, huh?" She said to him, raising her voice a little. "You're a grown man; you can make your own damn decisions."

"I'm sorry, I need to ask the others first." He said and started walking away, but Sabrina was quick and grabbed his arm.

"Hey, my friend in here is getting worse and worse by the minute, and if he doesn't get some help right now then he might slip into a coma." Sabrina said in a strict voice. It was a lie, but she had to use all measures to try and get to those backpacks. If that meant she had to lie, steal or worse then she was going to do it. She had to know what had happened to Sean.

The man looked at her and realized how serious the situation was. He sighed, but he nodded approving.

"Alright, but be quick." He whispered to her. "I'll escort you up to the fourth floor, so you don't get into trouble, okay?"

"Okay, I understand." She said nodding.

Tom let her out and closed the door behind her and locked it. The others who were sitting in the couch saw Sabrina and him moving towards the hallway.

"Hey, where are you taking her?" One of the other men in the group asked him.

"She needs to go to the bathroom." He said to them, lying. There was no point in trying to convince them into letting him help her. They didn't need to know.

The man just nodded at them and got back to whatever it was he was doing before. Sabrina followed him out the hallway and up the stairs to the 4th floor. It was still dark so the few people they passed by on the way up there didn't notice that it was Sabrina he was walking with.

When they got to the top of the stairs Sabrina noticed a phone ringing somewhere. She could also hear some people talking loudly, probably complaining about the noise the phone was making. Then she recognized the ring tone; it was Pat's cell phone. She quickly started running towards the big room they had been staying in earlier.

"Wait!" Tom yelled as he started running after her.

Sabrina ran through the door, but stopped once she was inside. Some of the others were standing over by the corner where she and her friends had placed their backpacks. They were going through their stuff, trying to find the cell phone. A young woman pulled the phone up from Pat's backpack, showing it to the others.

"Don't touch that!" She yelled at them as she ran to them and snatched the phone out of the woman's hands. She quickly pressed the green answer button and put the phone to her ear.

"Sean?!" She said, but she was too late; the connection got cut, as the one on the other end had hung up. All she could hear was the repeated beeping.

"Shit…" She whispered to herself. She didn't know what to think, but she was almost certain that it had been Sean calling.

_It had to be him, because who else would be calling Pat's cell phone? _She kept thinking. She looked at the number on the display. It wasn't a call coming from Sean's cell phone, because then it would have displayed his name since he was in Pat's phonebook.

The woman and the others surrounding her were just standing there looking at her, but then Sabrina gently pushed the woman aside. If the call had been from Sean then he had been calling from a payphone or something, which meant that he hadn't had his phone with him. So his backpack should still be there with the others. She sat down and started going through them, looking for his insulin. She didn't remember which one it was so she had to check them for their contents. The first one was her own which contained all the medical supplies they had taken from Sean's house. The next one was Pat's. It had some ammunition for the 9mm's in it, but when she searched further she felt the cold steel on her fingers. It was the Beretta Pat had smuggled up there. She didn't take it out, because a lot of eyes were watching her, so she left it in the backpack.

The third one she searched through turned out to be the correct one. It had all of Sean's stuff in it; his medicine, his glucose-level tester and some ammunition for his Colt .45.

Now she was absolutely certain that it had been him on the other end of the phone. And she was now also certain that Alex had been lying. Sean hadn't left the radio station out of free will; he had been forced to leave.

Sabrina felt relieved that Sean was alive, but then she came to think about why he had called. He had probably called because he wanted to let her and the others know that he was alive, but maybe he was in serious danger. Maybe he was hurt.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Tom then asked from behind her. He had figured out why she ran away from him, so he wasn't going to bother asking her about it. Nor was he going to ask her about the call, because he figured it had been her friend.

"Just a sec." She answered him and went through the backpacks once more, pulling out the stuff that she needed. She got up with a medical kit and a bottle of painkillers in her hands. "Yeah, I got it."

"Good." He said and grabbed her wrist, pulling her away from the others who were still staring at them. "I think its best that I get you back before someone suspects something."

"Okay." She agreed and walked with him.

What Tom or any of the others hadn't noticed was the small bulk on her stomach underneath her white sweater. Tucked in her pants was the Beretta. The steel felt cold on her stomach.


	19. No Return

**AN: I tried something new this time around. One of my reviewers, namely Carradine, agreed to help me by reading the chapter and edit some things before putting it up. He has changed some stuff in the chapter, making it look a lot better (in my opinion). So the writing might seem a little different this time. But tell me what you think of the change, and then I can decide whether I'm gonna continue to let Carradine help me or not.  
Also, you should check out some of his work. He's a really good writer, and he deserves some feedback. So right after you've finished reading this chapter, go straight to his profile and check out his work. I highly recommend it :)**

**Anyway, enjoy the latest installment of Chambered.**

Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.

**Baltasar Gracian**

**Chapter 19**

_No __Return_

Sean had sought refuge on the roof of a drugstore in one of the more open parts of the city. There weren't really any skyscrapers in Raccoon City, but the density of buildings was pretty high. The streets were narrow in most parts of downtown, but not the one he was at now. It was one of the key roads leading through the city center so it was pretty broad, which it had to be, because traffic was really dense around this area. Especially between 4 to 6 pm, because that was the time everyone was driving home from work. Sean had taken this way home many times. The police station wasn't long from where he was, only a few blocks to the west.

He would usually take a different route home, but Main Street was the most direct way. But the traffic jammed easily there, because thousands of people used to come this way to buy their groceries. As much as Sean hated being stuck in a traffic jam, he had to go this way occasionally to buy groceries himself. The city's mall was just half a mile up the street, and there were tons of other stores and shops up and down it. Main Street was a good place to go shopping if you were on foot. In a car it was hell; traffic jams, lack of parking space and you usually had to walk a mile from your car to the store anyway.

For Sean it was rather difficult to reach downtown from his home, but for Sabrina and the brothers, it was easy. They all lived downtown, so they could walk or just jump on a bus and they would be at Main Street in no time. It took Sean at least an hour to get there with public transportation, but he still usually ended up taking the bus to the city center so he wouldn't have to worry about traffic or parking space. It was quite often he went there, because he had lots of money. Not really because of his income, but more because he didn't spend money on too many things. He didn't have to pay rent or anything, living with his parents, and his car was rather cheap, both in insurance and gas usage. So occasionally he would go to the mall or just walk up and down the streets with his friends on Saturdays, buying new clothes and stuff, or just window shopping.

He had so many memories of the place, but now Main Street was barely recognizable anymore, just like the movie theater and the restaurant he had been at earlier. The street had been so full of life before the incident, but now it was as dead as the rest of the city. Sean had always complained about the huge masses of people that used to be there shopping, but now he regretted ever thinking that. He wanted the streets to be full of life as before, with traffic jams and overcrowded shops.

The sun had arisen from its slumber some hours ago. Normally Sean loved sunrise, but when the light lit up the streets it was a horrific sight, and he wished the sun would go back down. Main Street looked like a war zone, with cars piled together, some of them black of soot, dead bodies lying on the grey asphalt and on the sidewalks in big pools of blood, and all kinds of rubble lying everywhere.

The huge pile of cars a little bit down the street looked like a massive car crash. Sedans, SUVs and minivans were literally lying on top of each other. He could see people still inside the cars and some hanging out their windows. There was even a man who looked like he had been thrown out a windshield. Sean guessed he hadn't been wearing his seatbelt, although it wouldn't have mattered much if he had been. He probably would've been killed by the impact anyway; by the way the car's front end was destroyed, he had been driving really fast.

But they were all dead. None of them were moving, and none of them had moved during the many hours Sean had been on that rooftop for. Not that he felt like checking, because if they weren't dead, then they would probably be undead. So he stayed put. He needed a break from things, and so he had sought up on the roof of the store rather than hiding inside it. There had only been a steel ladder leading up there, so he figured he was safe. As far as Sean could tell, zombies didn't have the coordination to climb ladders.

He had, despite that, encountered a single one up there. He had found him roaming around, drenched in what he believed was the man's own blood. Sean had found a trail of blood leading from the ladder to a rather large pool of blood in the middle of the roof. It seemed that the man had crawled up there, alive, then bled out and collapsed in his own blood.

What really baffled Sean was that once the man had turned, he had apparently stopped bleeding. There were no blood trails leading away from the puddle, so the zombie had either ran out of blood to bleed, or maybe it had healed the wound in such a degree that it had stopped bleeding. He leaned more to the latter, because it seemed more logical. No being could get up again after loosing all of its blood. But if it could somehow regenerate faster, closing the wound and quickly producing new blood, then it could be possible, he thought. How the zombie was able to do that he didn't know. He knew a thing or two about the human body, but he was no expert on the subject.

Sean had dealt with him quickly by swinging the axe at his head. He had cracked his head open before the man could even lift his arms to grab him. The blood had spattered as the pointy end of the axe had penetrated the side of the man's head, bloodying Sean's arms. The man had fallen to the roof instantly, proving how effective the axe actually was. Sean was glad he had gotten the opportunity to test its effectiveness in an environment that safe. If there had been more than one zombie, things might've been much more difficult, but now he got a good feel of how to handle the axe and he felt more secure using it in the future. He was surprised to see how easy it was to swing it. It didn't feel as heavy as he'd thought it would be, but it wasn't too light either, which was good because it needed some weight to deliver a powerful strike. Once he had swung the axe, it basically did the rest of the work as long as he hit what he was aiming at.

The downside was the mess it made. Blood and brain matter had sprayed all over the roof's surface, some blood still seeping out of the gaping wound in the zombie's head. If it hadn't been for the light breeze coming from the west, Sean would've gotten sick. It wasn't so much the blood and the guts that made his stomach turn, but the smell. He remembered the first one he had encountered. It had been dead for days and he had been decaying massively. The smell had been unbearable. Beyond that, that zombie had been the one who bit him, infecting him with the deadly virus, or whatever it was. If Sean hadn't been attacked by that guy, he would still be at the radio station with his friends, out of harm's way. He could still have been with Sabrina, holding her, feeling her warm embrace. He hated that zombie for infecting him; he wished that he could go back in time and just kill the damn thing before it got to him. But he couldn't and now he was on his own.

For now Sean had a goal, to get to the hospital for some insulin. After that he had no idea to what he was going to do. He couldn't go back to the radio station, so he had to reunite with his friends in some other way. Maybe they could somehow get the situation back there under control, allowing him to get back in. But getting in contact with them was a bit of a problem. He couldn't keep using payphones, because that meant he had to stay still, which wasn't a very good idea. He had to be able to move constantly, so he would have to locate a cell phone. With that he wouldn't have to worry about running out of change either.

There were lots of electronic stores in the area, but Sean doubted he would find anything of use. There would be lots of cellphones around, but they wouldn't have any SIM cards in them, so he couldn't use them. He had to find a phone that was active, which meant he would have to search bodies for one. He didn't like the idea of searching a dead person for items. It was creepy enough as it was, but Sean also felt it was wrong somehow, like he was desecrating the dead by stealing from them. They wouldn't need the things anymore, but he still wasn't comfortable with it.

Sean was still just sitting on the roof, resting his back against the 2 foot high concrete frame around the roof's edge. The black surface of the roof was partially covered in bird droppings, but Sean had found a spot where it wasn't so bad. Not that it mattered; his clothes were already pretty dirty.

It was really hot sitting in the sun, so Sean had taken his shirt off. He discovered a few bruises while taking the t-shirt off, but nothing major. He had a light bruise on his side and one on his shoulder, both dark purple in color. They didn't hurt much when he touched them. He realized how lucky he had been, jumping out of that window back at the radio station: He only sustained a few scrapes and bruises from it, which was pretty lucky considering he had fallen from 3rd floor. The fact that he had escaped from the huge horde of zombies by the station was also extremely lucky. When he thought about it, he realized how close he had been to dying. The fall had knocked him unconscious. If he had woken up just a few seconds later, he probably wouldn't be alive now. Sean also thought about how fast he had reacted, and how he had kept his head cool, fully focused on getting away. He had really surprised himself.

Sean was beginning to enjoy the silence, after everything he had been through.

A girl's loud and penetrating scream suddenly broke the silence. He quickly got up from the surface and looked around, finding that the sound had come from the grocery store just across the street. Sean grabbed the axe and his t-shirt, and ran towards the ladder.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sabrina had returned to the small room -their little holding cell- where Mike and Pat were sitting. She had fixed Pat up with a bandage to his head and she had given him some painkillers. Even though she had used the med kit as an excuse to get to the backpacks, they had needed it; Pat's head was pretty messed up. Bruises and small sores covered his face. He could've gone without medical attention, but he would have to be careful about his concussion. As long as he stayed still and rested, it would be gone in a day.

Sabrina had told them the good news; that Sean had called Pat's cellphone. She had also told them the bad news, that she had found all Sean's stuff back there. Mike and Pat had both been relieved to hear that Sean was alive, but the bad news lowered their spirits again.

"We have to get out of here." Pat said, trying to sit up. "We have to find him."

"Easy, Pat." Mike said to him, helping him down again. "You're in no condition to go anywhere. You need to rest."

Pat sighed deeply, irritated.

"One of us must go out there to try and find him." Sabrina said.

Pat felt like a liability to the others, like he was holding them back. If only one of them went out to find Sean, their chances of finding him would be small, but if two went, their chances would be much better.

"Just leave me here and go find Sean." Pat said, talking to both Sabrina and Mike. "I'll be fine."

"That's out of the question, Pat. We can't leave you here all alone." Sabrina said to him. "What if something happens while we're gone?"

Pat went silent and looked away. If he hadn't sustained a concussion, he would've left the radio station to look for Sean in a heartbeat. He knew Mike and Sabrina wouldn't leave him, but he still felt like he was in the way. He didn't like the idea of holding them back; Pat felt like he was putting Sean's life in danger by keeping them with him. If the tables were turned, however, and it was Mike lying there instead, Pat would've stayed with his brother, so he could understand why he and Sabrina weren't going to leave him.

"So who's going?" He asked, facing them again.

Sabrina looked at Mike, who looked back at her. She knew he wouldn't hesitate for a second to put his life on the line for Sean, so it didn't surprise Sabrina when he said, "I'll do it," already standing.

As much as Sabrina appreciated his offer, she knew she was best suited for the task. "No Mike, you should stay here with your brother," she said. "I'll go."

"Not gonna happen," Mike objected. "I'm not gonna sit here while you go risk your life for Sean."

"Mike, I know how close you and Sean are…" Sabrina began, but then Mike cut her short.

"_Close_?! Me and Sean have been friends since kindergarten. I've known him _much _longer than you have!"

Sabrina could see how frustrated he was, and she understood what he was going through. She would've objected too, if she was the one who had to stay back. "Look, Mike, I understand how frustrated you are, but you need to understand this," Sabrina said, calmly, "If Sean is hurt, I'm the only one who can take care of him."

Looking up at Mike, Pat said, "She's got a point, bro."

"Yeah, I'm sorry for freaking out," Mike said, looking down.

"I understand," Sabrina said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Mike placed his hand on hers. "Thanks."

"Besides, I've got the gun," she said, pulling out the Beretta.

Pat sat up immediately at the sight of the gun. Mike took a few steps back, surprised. Right before Pat could ask where she got it, he realized it was the same gun he had smuggled up there in his backpack.

"I was surprised to find this in your backpack, Pat," she said, smiling. He chuckled, smiling back.

"Yeah, well, I figured that it could come in handy." He said, pointing at it. "And I guess I was right."

"Great!" Mike said, happy to see the Beretta. "Now you don't have to get one from downstairs. That solves _that_ problem."

"Yeah, but there's another one," Sabrina said, just realizing it herself. "I forgot to take the backpack with the ammo and Sean's stuff in it. I'm gonna need to go back and get it somehow."

Trying to figure out a plan, they all went silent for awhile.

Eventually, Mike said, "You know, in the movies there's always an easy solution to this kind of situation. There's always an air vent thingy the hero can use to get around the place."

"Yeah, but this isn't _Die Hard_, bro," Pat said, seriously. He turned to Sabrina and said, "No matter what you choose to do, Sabrina, you have to be subtle. I don't think it's a good idea to force your way out."

"Yeah, we gotta come up with something better than that." She answered, agreeing with him.

She turned around, staring into the grey wall. She closed her eyes, trying to concentrate, but it was hard when there were so many things on her mind. She had to come up with something as fast as she could, because every second Sean was out there meant a second less of his time, or probably did. He could be safe, hiding somewhere, but he could also be in grave danger…while she stood there, wasting precious seconds planning.

She opened her eyes and turned around, saying, "I think I have an idea…"

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sean slowly walked up to the sliding doors, which were broken, one of them locked closed, the other open. The doors had apparently been forced open, destroying the little engine that made them slide open and closed.

The scream had definitely come from inside of the store. Sean didn't doubt that for a second. He struggled with the urge to leave, but couldn't get himself to do it. Someone was alive in there, and they needed his help. He couldn't just ignore it, even though he couldn't afford to waste any more time. He should never have stopped to hide on the roof. That in itself had taken long enough, but then again, if he hadn't waited up there, he wouldn't have heard the scream.

Sean was scared as hell, but manned himself up and went inside anyway, keeping the axe at the ready. He hadn't heard anything after the first scream, and he still couldn't hear anything, even though he was inside. The place was dead silent.

Broken glass crunched under his shoes as he stepped carefully forward. A few jars of white potatoes had fallen onto the floor, but the potatoes were flat, squashed like someone had stepped on them. Sean definitely wasn't the first one to come in the store.

He couldn't see anyone or anything on the other side of the counters, but there were a lot of shelves and things between Sean and there. Anything could be hiding behind the counters.

Without warning, Sean heard the fast tapping of someone running. His eyes caught something running between two aisles, but then it disappeared. He hadn't had a chance to see what it was, but it was definitely not a zombie. That didn't mean it was human, so Sean refrained from yelling "hello".

He moved through the counters, heading for the aisle the thing had run past. It was hard to walk through the aisles; each was an ocean of various groceries. This aisle was overflowing with chips and other snacks. Bags were lying everywhere, some of them open. Sean decided to shove his feet across the floor instead to avoid stepping on the chips, so they wouldn't give away his position.

Looking at the snacks on the shelves and on the floor reminded him of how long he had gone without eating. He restrained his urge to take a handful of chips and throw them down his throat; he had something worse than his agitated stomach to deal with.

Sean saw someone's bare legs pointing out from behind a big shelf at the end of the aisle. He hadn't noticed them before. Someone was sitting up ahead, resting their back against the shelf. He couldn't tell whether they were male or female, but judging by the very high-pitched scream, whoever was sitting there was probably a young girl.

"Hello?" Sean said, after thinking about it for awhile. He kept his voice down.

He got no answer, not even a reaction. The girl didn't even flinch at the sound of his voice.

It was pretty obvious she was dead, but Sean doubted that statement when her hand suddenly fell to the floor. The legs clearly belonged to a girl – her fingers were too delicate to be a man's. Her fingers were drenched in fresh blood, dripping down to the white tiles on the floor. The girl's fingers moved slightly as Sean called out again. She had to be conscious.

Sean quickly ran to her, discovering that she was bleeding heavily from a large wound in her stomach. He crouched down to his knees to examine her closer, putting down the axe on the floor beside her to get his hands free.

The girl didn't look like she was much older than 16 or 17. She had long blond hair and was wearing what used to be a white shirt and a red quilted skirt. It looked like a school uniform of some sort, so she was probably a student at the local private school.

She was barely holding up; her eyes were hazy and unfocused and her head swaying slightly from side to side. She was conscious, but somehow out of reach. He couldn't get any contact with her at all, even when he tried to shake her lightly or talk to her.

Sean decided to look closer at the wound and removed her other hand, which was covering it. Her shirt was torn around the area, which looked like a stab wound. The shirt was covered in dark-red blood around the wound, so he couldn't really see how serious it was. He lifted it up a little to get a good look; the blood was literally seeping out of her. He could see how it pumped out of her stomach with each heavy breath she took.

"Fuck fuck fuck…" Sean whispered, quickly pressing his hands against the wound, desperately trying to stop the blood from streaming out. He had no idea what he was going to do, but he'd learned in first aid classes to keep pressure on the wound, so he did that. Of course, that was just until the ambulance would arrive…but there weren't any on the way now. He was all alone with the girl, and if he didn't do anything about the bleeding soon, he would soon be just as alone as he was before he entered the store.

It was horrible; the wound wouldn't stop bleeding, and his hands were getting drenched in the thick red fluid. The blood was almost black; something vital had been penetrated, most likely the liver, which meant that her odds of survival were pretty bad.

The girl suddenly started coughing up blood, shaking violently. Some of the blood hit Sean in the face. He wiped his face on his sleeve, but without removing his hands from the wound.

She settled down, but now she was bleeding from her mouth. He guessed something more than her liver had been torn.

The seizure had apparently snapped her out of her trance. She looked at Sean with drowsy, almost empty eyes. Her hand found its way to Sean's and she grabbed his wrist, pulling it to get his attention.

"Red…red…" She mumbled, like she had something important to say. She was out of strength and couldn't speak very loudly. Sean moved closer, listening intently.

"Red what?" Sean asked, looking her straight in the eyes.

"St-still here… red…" She stuttered, desperately trying to form a sentence. She squeezed his wrist harder and spoke again: "He's coming!"

Sean couldn't even manage to respond before some noise came from the aisle behind the girl. It was a deep and rasp breathing, and it seemed almost familiar to Sean.

The creature stepped out from behind the shelves, and everything fell into place. It had been what the girl had been talking about, and what Sean had seen darting between aisles.

In front of him stood an almost bare-chested man with flaming red skin, a ripped white t-shirt covering his upper body. His eyes were dead white and his fingers had long sharp claws where there should have been nails. He was massive, standing there, his muscles looking like they'd grown out of his skin, exposing raw muscle tissue. The man's hair appeared to have fallen off little by little; he only had hair in patches, on some areas on the top of his head. He had not gone bald naturally. He looked like whatever transformation he had gone through had made his hair fall off.

It looked very much like the red-skinned zombie from the gas station earlier, but still very different. Could it be the same disease that did this? And how or why did some of them turn into red beasts instead of just zombies? Whatever had happened, Sean didn't like the idea that the thing had been human once, and then had somehow _mutated_ into the red beast standing before him.

The beast was breathing violently, excited by the sight of new prey. Still, it didn't make a move; it just stood there, observing Sean. He couldn't tell what it was looking at, but he could tell it was figuring him out, like a predator would.

This type of zombie, or whatever it was, was much more intelligent than regular zombies, and it was a much greater threat than anything else Sean had encountered.

Sean didn't dare to move, but he wanted to run, as fast as he could. He wouldn't stand a chance against that thing, but he couldn't move. Somehow, he knew that if he ran it would attack him.

A minute past as they just stood there, looking at each other. None of them had moved, which made Sean wonder. Normally a predator would attack at some point and not wait for their prey to make the first move. That was more of a defense technique. Then he realized that it wasn't looking at him anymore. It started to turn its head slightly to either side, like it was listening for something. Was it blind?

Sean figured that this was his chance to make a move, so he slowly moved his hand towards the axe, lying next to him. He was very careful that he didn't make a sound, which he thought could catch the beast's unwanted attention.

But as soon as he moved his right arm -just a little- the beast's face pointed directly at him again. It slowly opened its mouth and out fell a long tongue. It was about a foot long, reaching down to the middle of the beast's stomach. It clenched its fists, drilling its claws into its own hands, and let out a blood freezing cry.

Sean's heart was beating so fast that it was almost defibrillating. But when the beast threw itself at him with immense swiftness, he was ready and he threw himself sideways, dodging it only by a few inches. He landed on his side, sliding across the tiles, and then quickly got himself up on his feet again.

The crimson beast had almost fallen on top of the bleeding girl, hitting its head on the blood-stained floor. That didn't delay it for long, and now, it was getting up. It shook its head and stood, growling angrily.

Sean's axe was still lying next to the girl. Sean was unarmed. He couldn't attack the thing without some kind of weapon. With no other weapons nearby, he would have to get the axe back somehow. He had to lure the beast away from the girl.

Sean moved slowly backward until he bumped into a refrigerated counter with all sorts of meat piled upon it. He waited there until the beast charged again. It ran toward him with its arms stretched out before it, aiming to stab him with its claws. At exactly the right moment, Sean stepped forward and threw himself down, landing on all-fours. The beast tried to stop, but it had too much momentum. The crimson beast's legs hit Sean and sent it flying. It landed face-first in the counter, smashing through the glass.

Sean got up, his hand at his side. It really hurt where the beast had hit, but he didn't have time to whine. He ran for the axe. He stopped when he reached the girl and picked up the axe, suddenly feeling a lot more confident, sure he was going to make it through this.

As he had expected, the fall hadn't affected the beast at all. It was already trying to get up. It struggled to get out of the glass counter, but it was stuck on something. Sean saw the opportunity to attack and ran toward it, swinging the axe in the process.

The axe thunked right in the beast's back, and it cried in pain, tearing itself out of the counter. It hit Sean and he got knocked backward, down on the floor. The axe fell out of Sean's hands, apparently still resting in the back of the beast.

As Sean noticed, the axe hadn't hit the beast's spine, although he'd been aiming for it. The thing was still going strong, turning around to attack Sean again. He spotted a can of beans next to him, grabbed it, and then threw it at the beast's face, hoping to buy some time. The can hit the beast straight in the forehead, staggering the thing for just long enough to let Sean get to his feet.

He realized he couldn't keep the defensive strategy up; Sean had to be more aggressive if he was going to win.

Sean started running towards the beast, building up as much momentum he could. He jumped. He raised both his feet up in front of him and kicked the beast right in its chest, using all of his weight to knock it down.

It practically flew into the shelves behind it, launching groceries left and right. Sean landed on the ground, but quickly got up and grabbed the monster's arm, pulling it violently out from the shelves. He threw it facedown to the floor. The impact stunned the beast, but only for a few seconds, so Sean had to be fast.

He grabbed the shaft of the axe and pulled it out of the beast's back. He raised the axe above his head and slammed it directly into the back of the beast's half-bald head.

Blood sprayed everywhere, and the beast's head split nearly into pieces. The beast was dead.

Breathing heavily, exhausted from the fight, Sean started walking back to the girl. He dropped the axe down beside the girl and knelt in front of her. Her head was bending forward, hair dangling in front of her face. He lifted her head and pushed hair from her face. To Sean's disappointment, her eyes were frozen in a cold, distant stare; she was dead…

Perhaps she had bled out while he was fighting the crimson beast. Sean sighed, feeling sorry for the girl even though he hadn't known her. He closed her eyes and laid her down on the tiles. To anyone but Sean, it would look like she was resting on her side. Sean reclaimed his axe and got up.

She was going to turn into a zombie at some point. He couldn't leave her there just to attack someone else. It didn't feel right, but it had to be done. He raised the axe above his head.


	20. Now or Never

**AN: Hey guys, it's time for a new chapter. Not much to say this time other than I actually finished the chapter last week, but I've been waiting for my beta to send the revised chapter back to me. He never did, so now I'm just gonna post the chapter anyway. I hope you don't mind that.  
I know you've been anxious to get to know what's happening back at the radio station, so here's (almost) an entire chapter about Sabrina. I really had fun writing this, so I hope you're gonna enjoy this too.  
Again I want to thank all of you who are reading my story. I really appreciate it, even though it's only a fraction of you who actually review it. I also want to thank all who have contacted me. I've gotten a lot of feedback, and I've gained a few friends too. Thanks guys :)  
****  
Anyway, enjoy the latest installment of Chambered.**

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

**Mark Twain**  
_US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)_

**Chapter 20**

_Now or Never_

Sabrina knocked twice on the door, hard.

She sighed, trying to calm her nerves as she waited for someone to open the door. Footsteps could be heard and soon the sound of the lock being turned. She held her breath, hoping it wouldn't be Tom who opened the door.

Unfortunate for Tom, it was him who had unlocked the door and was now staring in at her. He blinked at her, almost asking her what she wanted without even speaking a word.

"I need to go to the bathroom." She said to him.

He nodded and opened the door wider, letting her out.

"Walk in front of me." Tom said and pointed her towards the door leading to the hallway. He didn't seem to be as positive as he had been when she had talked to him earlier. Maybe he had gotten in trouble for helping her. She could understand, and so she wouldn't bother him.

Sabrina couldn't let him sense that there was something wrong, that she was nervous. On the outside she looked calm and relaxed, but on the inside she was a mess. Her heart was racing, and her palms were sweaty, but no one would know as long as she didn't say anything, because that was her _tick_. If she opened her mouth she would probably stutter or worse, and Tom would know that something was up. She kept her mouth shut and walked in front of him as she had been told.

Very few things in Sabrina's life had scared her. She was a very calm and controlled person, and she could keep her head cool in almost any situation. But the past few days had been too much for her. Everything was out of control, and she had constantly been forced to make difficult choices. This time it was different, however, because it was Sean's life that was in jeopardy if she didn't make it out of the radio station, not her own life.

She only had this one chance to make it out, so she couldn't afford to screw up. She stayed cool and controlled, focusing on the plan.

They walked down to the far end of the poorly lit hallway, where the toilet was. The door was only half-closed and there was very dark in there. Sabrina stopped and turned around, looking at Tom.

"Could you go in first?" Sabrina said. "I'm scared. One of those _things _could be in there."

Tom sighed. "We've already checked the entire building several times. There's nothing in there."

"Please?" She said, begging him to do it.

Tom sighed again. "Alright, alright, I'll do it."

He walked up to the door and pushed it open. He found the switch on the inside and turned the light on. The lights flickered on and revealed that the toilet was empty.

"You see?" Tom said, with his arms stretched out to the sides. He turned around, but he didn't manage to react; Sabrina hit him over the head with the gun, knocking him unconscious.

She managed to catch him before he slammed into the tiled toilet floor and she put him down gently. She had hit him pretty good, so he was bleeding a little from his forehead.

"I'm sorry." She whispered to him. She regretted ever doing it, but she had to or else she wouldn't get out of the radio station. She didn't have any other choice.

He would be fine as long as someone found him, so she left the door partly open. She turned off the light though, because she didn't want anyone to find him too soon either. If someone found him like this then the entire place would be in uproar in seconds and they would quickly discover that she was gone.

Sabrina had waited until sundown to do it, so the entire radio station was covered in darkness, except for the places where the lights were on. And most of the people there were asleep, so the hallways would most likely be empty.

She moved silently, but with swift steps towards the stairs. She had the gun in her hand, but then decided to tuck it away in her pants again. Not everyone at the radio station would recognize her if she walked past them, but the gun would give her away if someone saw her with it. It attracted too much attention.

Sabrina moved up the stairs to the 4th floor without any trouble, but the lights were on in the hallway leading to the room where everyone was sleeping. She pushed herself up against the wall and peeked into the hallway. It was empty, but in the far end was the toilet and someone was in there. The door was closed, but she could see the light under the door. If she moved now, then she could probably make it to the "sleeping room" before the person in the toilet finished.

She stepped out into the hallway, but then she heard the toilet flush and she froze. She was halfway there, so she could either run to the room or go back and wait until he was gone. But if the person should return to the room, she would have to wait until he had fallen asleep before she could go inside. If she just went in after him, he would probably see her and wonder where she had come from. Besides, if she waited too long around the staircase she would probably get spotted by someone. Her only choice was to move now before it was too late.

Sabrina heard the lock for the toilet click open and she started running for the door to the big room. She managed to open the door swiftly but silently, and she quickly went inside closing the door again. Everyone in there was sleeping because no one looked up at her while she looked around the room.

She heard the noise of footsteps outside the door and she quickly found her way to where her and her friends' backpacks were. The door opened slowly as the light spread out into the room, and Sabrina quickly laid herself down on the floor, pretending to be asleep.

The silhouette of the man who had entered stood in the doorway for awhile, but he then turned around and closed the door, leaving the room in darkness again.

_That was way too close. _Sabrina thought and sighed, relieved that he hadn't seen her.

She waited until he had gone to sleep again, before starting to pack her backpack. She knew that not everyone in there was asleep, but no one would find it suspicious if she got up. She just had to be quiet, and then she would be fine.

Sabrina sat up, looking around the room again. Everyone was lying down, so she started going through the backpacks. She found her own and checked it for items. There was practically everything she needed in it; a box of 9mm ammunition, two medical kits and some clothes. The only thing she needed, besides the stuff in her own backpack, was Sean's insulin and glucose-level tester. She found it and put it into her own backpack.

Sabrina looked down upon the stuff she had so far. She then went for Pat's backpack and pulled out the box of 9mm ammunition he had kept with him. It was good to have some extra ammunition, she thought. She quickly checked her pockets just to check if she still had Sean's cellphone, but it was there, in her right pocket. She had taken it with her earlier along with Pat's cellphone, which she had given back to Pat. They needed a way of communicating with each other and Sean could also get a hold of them if he was to call. Sabrina then zipped the backpack closed and found her jacket, putting it on. Now she was ready to go.

Sabrina got up and walked to the door, slowly opening it. She peeked out in the bright hallway, her eyes blinded for a second. The coast was clear so she sneaked out and closed the door carefully behind her. Once out in the hallway she swung the backpack over her shoulder, putting it on.

Now she just had to figure a way out of there. She, Pat and Mike hadn't planned any further than this since they didn't know the layout of the building very well. So far the only way out she knew about was the elevator, but that was out of the question. The elevator was controlled from the surveillance room on 3rd floor, but to get to that room she had to go down to where she had come from; the studio where the other survivors were guarding the room. It couldn't be done, not with that many people in the room. She had to find another way out.

There wasn't anything on the 4th floor that could help her, and the thought of jumping out a window from that height was downright crazy, so she abandoned that floor and went down the stairs to the 3rd, hoping to find a way out down there.

Sabrina moved down the stairs silently and entered the dark hallway yet again. The door to the toilet was still half-open, so no one had spotted the unconscious Tom lying in there. There were still a few rooms down here she could access from the hallway. Maybe there was a fire escape or something in one of them.

Suddenly Sabrina heard someone talking. The voices had come from one of the rooms she hadn't been in yet. It sounded like two people arguing. Now she only had one option and that was the last room she hadn't tried. Down the hall a door got opened and Sabrina was forced to enter the uncharted room without checking it for occupants first. She couldn't see anything in there, so she entered the room and closed the door behind her, hiding next to it.

The voices came nearer and nearer, and Sabrina's heartbeat went faster the closer they got. They walked past the door and down to the end of the hallway. All of a sudden she could hear that they stopped talking. Sabrina guessed that they had seen Tom lying on the floor of the toilet, and when they called out his name she was certain. She had to leave immediately.

She turned around and looked at the room she had entered. It was as dark as the hallway so it was hard to tell what was in there, but she could just barely see the silhouettes of the furniture. It looked like some kind of office, complete with desks, office chairs and paper bins. She noticed that one of the windows in the back had been smashed, still with shards in the frame of it.

She started walking over to the window to examine it closer, but suddenly she stepped on something sticky. She looked down and found that she had stepped on some gaffer tape. Pulling it off of her shoe she looked closer at it. It looked like someone had been tied to the desk with it, because one of the desks legs felt sticky too. The tape looked like it had been cut over, so whoever had been tied up had probably escaped. This had to be the room where they had kept Sean, she thought.

Sabrina got up on her feet again and walked towards the smashed window. She guessed that this was where Sean had exited the building. Maybe she could take the same way out, she thought. But when she looked out the window and down on the street she doubted that this was the way Sean had taken. There was very far down to the pavement below and nothing to land on but a dumpster, and that wouldn't be pleasant. Also all the zombies that had attacked her and Sean when they had entered the building was gone. The streets were practically empty.

She seriously didn't believe that he had gone this way, but then she looked along the side of the building. There was a drainpipe leading from the top of the radio station and down to the street. It didn't look very sturdy, but it had to be strong enough to carry her if Sean had been using it to go down. It was rather risky to try to use the pipe to get down, but she had no choice. If she had to leave the building she had to go that way, because she couldn't go back, especially not now that the others had discovered Tom. It was either down the drainpipe or back to the small room with Pat and Mike.

Sabrina tightened the straps on her backpack, making sure that it wouldn't fall off. Then she climbed up in the window very carefully, but then stopped when she looked down again. She wasn't normally afraid of heights, but when she was hanging out the window she could feel the fear rising up in her.

"Don't look down, don't look down." She whispered to herself as she turned around, keeping her right arm inside of the window and the left free. She tried to reach for the pipe, but it was just out of reach. She crawled a little further out the window until she was only standing on one leg, the other hanging freely. Now she could reach it and so she grabbed the pipe around where it was fitted to the wall with a saddle clip. She gradually moved herself further out the window until she could place her left foot on one of the metal clips, giving her a decent footing, since the clips were rather sturdy.

The shards in the window frame had cut into Sabrina's arms as she had moved further out the window. It hurt like hell, but she had managed to keep herself from letting go. Now she _had_ to let go, because she needed to move the rest of herself over to the drainpipe, but she had to be careful that she didn't cut herself any further than what she already had. She swung her arm out fast from the window, avoiding the shards, but because of how her weight had been placed she swung backwards, but kept on holding on to the drainpipe. She swung around the pipe and bumped into the wall and she almost let go, but she swiftly grabbed the pipe with her other hand avoiding a deadly fall.

Sabrina held herself tightly to the pipe, trying to calm herself before moving downwards. Her heart was racing in her chest, but it slowed down after some time. She counted backwards from ten to help calming herself down. It always seemed to help when she was stressed out by something. Mostly when she was on work she had to calm her nerves if something was bothering her, like when her colleagues were bossing her around. That could really ignite her flaming temper, but she calmed herself down by counting backwards from ten. It also seemed to work when she was scared, and when she had reached one she was ready to continue.

Sabrina slowly and carefully moved downwards, only moving one limb at a time; hand, foot, hand, foot. She used the metal clips to stand on as she went down, though they weren't the best to place your feet on. They weren't very big and it was hard for her to keep her feet steady, and occasionally she slipped, but her hands had a good grip around the pipe so she didn't fall.

When she was about halfway down, she stopped to see if the coast was still clear. It wouldn't be very smart to go down if there were some zombies waiting to ambush her as soon as she reached the ground. There were a few of them shuffling around about 200 feet away from where she was, but she didn't worry about them. They were too far away to reach her before she got to the ground. She then continued to move down the pipe.

All of a sudden one of the clips came loose and both her feet suddenly had nothing to rest on. Sabrina couldn't hold her up with her hands only, so she fell. She was falling sideways alongside the wall and she desperately reached out with her arms trying to grab onto something, but her fingers just slid across the brick wall. She landed with a loud thump on the dumpster beneath her and she went out cold for a second.

Sabrina tried to get up again, but the pain in her arm kept her from pushing herself back up. She had landed on her side on top of her left arm. She hadn't felt the pain before now and so she screamed in agony. She rolled over on her back, removing the weight from her arm. Sitting up she started feeling her left arm, trying to determine whether it was broken or not. Luckily she couldn't feel anything, and she could still move her arm even though it hurt to do it. It wasn't broken.

After moving her arm around a little to adjust to the pain, she jumped down from the dumpster and pulled out the gun. Or that was what she intended to do, but when she went for the gun she realized that it wasn't there. She had dropped it either while she was climbing down the drainpipe or perhaps under the fall. She looked up at where the saddle clip had come loose. She hadn't fallen very far, only about 6 or 7 feet, but even from that height you could end up breaking a leg or an arm. She had been lucky.

Sabrina followed the drain down to the ground and started looking for the handgun there. When she couldn't find it there, she started looking for it around the dumpster. The dumpster had been closed the whole time, so there was no point in looking inside it. She looked over her shoulder to check if she had time to look for the handgun. The zombies hadn't noticed her, despite all the noise she had made, and so she continued to search for her weapon. She crawled down on all four, trying not to support her weight with her left arm, and looked under the dumpster. There it was; right at the corner furthest away.

Sabrina couldn't reach it from where she was, so she moved to the other side of the dumpster. Unfortunately, there was someone sitting at that corner. Or it used to be someone, she thought. Before her, resting up against the building and the dumpster, was a man, probably in his mid-thirties. He had bite marks on his neck, his blue shirt was covered in blood and his face was very pale. He was hunched forward, sitting in an awkward position. He looked dead to her, but over the past few days she had learned that appearance can be deceiving. He could be dead, but he could just as well be an undead, waiting for her to come close so he could grab her.

Sabrina kicked him hard in the groin.

No response…

She kicked him again, much harder than before, but still no response. He just wiggled a little, but otherwise he didn't move a muscle.

Assuming he was dead, she grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him away. He weighed a ton, but she managed to flip him over on his side. She then discovered he had a huge hole in the side of his cheek. She wasn't sure, but it looked like an exit wound from a bullet. She hadn't seen where the bullet had entered, so she didn't know if he was completely dead. Maybe it had gone from cheek to cheek or maybe not. Either way she had to get to the gun and since he wasn't moving or anything she didn't hesitate to go for it, so she crawled down on all four again and found it. She pulled it out from under the dumpster and examined it quickly. She took out the magazine and pulled the slide back. She hit the slide button so the slide went forward again and then she pulled the trigger. The hammer slammed in on the pin just as it was supposed to, so obviously it was still working. She then put the magazine back into the Beretta and loaded it by pulling the slide back and releasing it.

Sabrina looked around the area she was in. She noticed a dead zombie about 50 feet away, lying in a pool of its own blood. She decided to check it out, but suddenly she was grabbed by her foot. She turned around to find the man, who she had believed to be dead, pulling her foot with both his hands. He looked up at her with his pale and empty eyes with his mouth open, drooling on her grey sneakers. He was just about to bite into her leg when she stepped him on the head, forcing it down on the asphalt. She kept him down so he couldn't get to her leg and eventually he let go of her foot.

Sabrina looked at him as he tried to wiggle himself free. He moaned and groaned as he struggled, but she had shifted all of her weight over on that foot so he couldn't get away. She raised the gun and put him out of his misery by shooting him straight through the side of his head. He went silent at the same second, and so she removed her foot from his head and moved on.

Sabrina walked towards the dead zombie she had spotted earlier. It was close to a couple of zombies who seemed to be walking around in circles, but she didn't shoot them. They were a little too close for comfort, but she wasn't going to put them down unless they attacked her. She had to avoid using the gun unless she was in a really critical situation. She had a whole pack of ammunition, but that wasn't going to last long if she was to shoot every threat she encountered.

She slowly walked up to the dead zombie, keeping one eye on the other zombies and the other on the dead one. When she reached it she examined it closer, but still watching that the others wouldn't get too close. It was a woman who was lying there, covered in blood. It appeared as if her head had been slammed into the ground, not from a fall, but more like it had happened multiple times. It was definitely inflicted by someone else. It had to be Sean; she didn't doubt that for a second. But something didn't add up. The dead zombie was lying in the middle of the street practically, and he obviously hadn't been attacked there. It didn't make sense since the woman couldn't have sneaked up on him in an area this open. And knowing him, she knew that he was very careful.

Instead she pictured that the entire area had been flooded with zombies when he had escaped. He had probably been fighting his was through the masses and had been caught off guard, running into the woman. He had then killed her with his bare hands by slamming her head into the ground, cracking her skull.

Sabrina saw that one of the zombies had spotted her and so it started moving towards her. She decided that it was probably best that she started moving on. By looking at the body she had found out that Sean was still alive, but that he was unarmed. Now she could continue her search and in the mean time get far away from the zombie that was closing in on her. She turned her back to it and started running up the street. She didn't know where Sean could've gone to, but the way she saw it there were two things that he could've chosen to do: He could be hiding somewhere, hoping that he would be rescued somehow, or he could be heading for the hospital to find some insulin. Her guess was the hospital, because no way Sean was going to put his life in somebody else's hands. He was too much of a control-freak to sit around some place safe, hoping for someone to show up and help him. He was taking things into his own matter, so he was definitely trying to reach the hospital in order to keep himself alive.

The hospital was far away from where she was, but it was the only place she could imagine that he would run to. She decided to head in its direction, hoping that she would find him before he reached it. She had all he needed in her backpack.

As she ran up the street, it slowly started raining.

xxxxxxxxxxx

About half an hour before it had started raining, Sean had heard a lot of gunfire south of where he was. The gunshots had continued for a long time, but had then turned less and less frequent, and had eventually died out completely. Sean was pretty sure that it had come from the police station, so there were probably survivors there too, fighting off the zombies. The fact that the shooting had stopped could mean two things: that they had eradicated all of the zombies, or the other way around, that the zombies had killed all the survivors.

Sean would've turned back and checked it out if it wasn't for the fact that he felt really sick. He had run out of glucose tablets about an hour ago and he was now running low on blood sugar. He felt dizzy and he was cold-sweating. The fact that it was raining didn't make things a whole lot better either. He was already soaking wet, his clothes heavy from the water it had absorbed. The water wasn't cold, but it wasn't warm either. If he wasn't careful he would catch a cold, but that was the least of his worries right now, he thought.

Sean didn't stop. He just kept on pressing forward, because he knew that if he stopped to rest then he wouldn't get up again. His strength was slowly diminishing, so he had to use the little he had left to keep placing one foot in front of the other.

The hospital wasn't far away now. He just needed to go past the gates to the park and St. Michael Clock Tower. He could already see it from where he was, the big sign above the front doors, the letters spelling out "Raccoon Hospital".

Sean had never liked hospitals. He hated the sterile, white colors and the cold atmosphere. He didn't mind the people working there though. The doctors and nurses always seemed nice, and they always took good care of their patients. Sean had been there a lot through his life because of his illness, and the atmosphere had always made him uneasy, but somehow the staff had helped him calm down. They had always talked to him, made him forget about how creepy the hospital was, especially when he was a kid. Now on the other hand, the hospital's staff wasn't going to ease his worries as they had in the past. He seriously doubted that there was anyone alive in there. They were all probably dead but still walking, like all the others.

Sean could barely hold himself up anymore, but he continued, using what little strength he had left in him. When he took the first step up the stairs, he didn't lift his foot high enough, so he tripped. He fell onto the steps, breaking the fall with his arms as he dropped the axe.

"Argh!!" He screamed as the bite wound on his forearm hit a step right on the edge, making the pain shoot through his entire arm. He steered his arm away and fell to his side, rolling over on his back.

The pain was excruciating, perhaps even worse than the pain from when he had gotten the wound. He felt his stomach turn and so he rolled on over to his side again. He then emptied his stomach content out on the staircase. The pain combined with his sickness had spurred some serious troubles with his stomach. Sean spat on the stairs and wiped his mouth with his hand. He made an attempt to get back up, but then he felt another wave of nausea. He vomited again.

**AN2: Yes, another cliffhanger for ya. I don't know why, but I just like ending my chapters this way. I'm really excited about the next chapter, because Sean is at the hospital. I'm gonna need to study it hard so I know every detail of its layout, so the chapter might take a little longer to write. Plus I have a lot of things going on right now that I need to take care of, but I hope it won't take more than a month to write. I don't want to keep you guys waiting too long.**


	21. Remedy

**AN: It's time for another chapter. I finished it around Monday this week, but I've been waiting for Carradine to return the chapter proofread. Again he didn't return it, so it's over. I'm not going to use his help anymore, since I can't keep waiting for the proofread chapters to show up. You guys will just have to settle with my lousy, unedited writing style. Sorry...**

**Carradine, if you read this, I just want to tell you that you've been a great help and that you can still give me some advice from the sideline, but I'm not going to use you as a beta anymore. I hope you understand.**

**In other news: I've noticed that my story is getting a lot of hits. 5542 is the exact number right now. Of course about 25 percent of those are just people who check out the first chapter and then stop reading. But the 86 hits to chapter 20 could suggest that there are at least 86 different people that are reading my story. That's pretty good.  
However, while there were 86 hits to the chapter, there were only 4 people who decided to review it. That's pretty damn bad, imo.  
I know I probably shouldn't be complaining, but I'm just tired of readers who just read and read, but never review any of the stories. You guys should get your fingers out of your lazy asses and start reviewing.  
Seriously, we writers put a lot of hard work into our stories, and the least you can do as a reader is to give us some feedback. I mean, leaving a review isn't going to kill you. It takes 5 minutes max. to leave one, but that one review can do the difference and keep the writer motivated. **

**To you guys that _have_ been reviewing; thanks. You really make a difference when you review. Even if it's just a short one. Every review motivates me to keep writing and keep trying to get better.**

**Anyway, I just wanted to get that out. I hope I didn't scare you too much. Please don't stop reading XD**

**Here's the latest installment of Chambered.**

Let the fear of danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.

**Francis Quarles**  
_English poet (1592 - 1644)_

**Chapter 21**

_Remedy_

Sean had found his way to the ambulance entrance on the other side of the hospital. He hadn't been able to enter through the front doors, because they were locked. He wondered why someone would lock the doors, keeping people from reaching help, but then he thought that maybe someone inside was still alive and had tried to barricade the place.

The only other way of entering the hospital was through the other side of the building, and that was where he was at now. The hospital had a road leading from Amy Street down to the entrance, making it perfect for the ambulances to enter there. Amy Street lead out to Mission Street which lead out to Raccoon Street, or Main Street as some of the citizens called it, which was the central vein of the city. From there you could quickly get to any place in the northern parts of the city.

The small road sloped down to the entrance, which allowed the ambulances to drive inside a garage where the patients would be transported into an elevator and up to the emergency rooms.

Right in front of the reception area an ambulance was parked. When the ambulances came in with a patient, the patient would be examined quickly to determine which floor he should be transported to. Sean had experienced the procedure before. Once he had gotten a seizure because he had accidentally gotten an overdose of insulin, because the dosage in one of the syringes had been wrong. Sean had soon lost conscience, but luckily his mother had found him and had called an ambulance. The ambulance had brought him in through this area. He couldn't really remember anything beyond the elevator, but he remembered how a doctor had examined him quickly before sending him up to the ER. After that Sean had passed out again on the stretcher and didn't wake up before much later where he had been moved to intensive care.

There weren't anyone down there now. The reception area was empty, not even a zombie in sight. It suited Sean just fine since he couldn't move very fast at the time, so he wouldn't be able to outrun any threats. His condition was still worsening, but he had managed to get himself back on his feet after falling on the stairs at the front entrance. He had walked to the back of the building, using the buildings walls as support on the way there.

If he didn't get insulin very soon, he would collapse. He was sure of that. His legs could barely hold him up much longer, and they forced him to take it slow. 4-5 steps at a time and then a short break, resting his legs by leaning himself against the pillars. The elevator was not far away now. _Just a little longer, _he kept thinking.

All of a sudden Sean heard a sound and he stopped, putting his journey to the next pillar on hold for a second. He listened carefully, looking around the area.

Nothing.

He thought that maybe he was delusional. His low blood sugar had perhaps taken its toll on his sanity.

As he was about to turn around and continue, he suddenly heard the sound again. Now he was pretty sure the sound was real, not a figment of his imagination. It sounded like something wet hit the floor. Not like water dripping, but like a cloth soaked in oil fell to the floor.

_Splat! _The sound echoed in the vast empty spaces of the entrance.

Sean felt a shiver run up his spine. He was unarmed and out of strength to fight. He had left the axe on the stairs at the front entrance. It had been too heavy for him to carry any longer, so he had abandoned it, hoping he wouldn't run into another zombie. Right now he felt stupid for leaving it behind, but he had been in his right mind to do it. He wouldn't have gotten this far with it.

His best option now was to run, but even that seemed impossible.

_Splat!_ Another wet "cloth" hit the floor.

Sean started moving forward, limping his way to the next pillar. It was the last between him and the elevator. The next challenge was the small slope up to it. Luckily there was a railing he could use to support himself.

_Splat!_

Sean started moving a little faster, but he didn't look back. His heart was racing and if it wasn't because he was soaked from the rain, he would've been pouring with sweat.

He couldn't even begin to imagine what generated the sickening sound, but he knew he had to get as far away from it as possible. Over the past days he had learned that anything that didn't sound normal probably wasn't, and that you should stay clear of it. Your own curiosity could mean the end of you.

_Splat, splat… Splat!_

The sounds got more and more frequent and Sean started moving faster and faster. He reached the railing and started moving up the small slope, making slight jumps in an attempt at moving faster.

He caught something out the corner of his eye and he turned his head to see, but nothing was there. He could've sworn that he had seen something move on the surface of the dark and wet concrete that was the floor. He continued towards the elevator.

With clammy and shaking hands he pushed the call button. He looked over his shoulder. There was nothing to see and the sounds had stopped. He listened carefully, but no, nothing could be heard. Sean felt his heart slowing down again.

The elevator _pinged_ behind him and the doors slid open as he turned back around. The elevator was huge. It had room for at least two stretchers and a handful of people. He limped inside and looked at the control panel. His options were: B1F, 1F, 2F, 3F and the roof. Sean pushed the 2F button. He knew that there was a nurse station on that floor, and that they always kept all kinds of medicine there, including insulin.

The elevator doors slid shut as he stepped further back into the elevator, leaning against the back of it. There was a railing inside the elevator he could use for support too.

_What I wouldn't give for a wheelchair right now,_ Sean thought, cursing his legs. His legs didn't have much strength left in them, but his arms still had some.

Before the elevator started moving, something bumped onto the closed slide doors. It sounded like someone had slammed their hand onto it. Somehow like a thud, but with more of a wet _splat_ to it. Whatever it was, it was connected to the sounds he had heard before entering the elevator.

He heard another bump, and then two more before the elevator finally started moving upwards. He noticed that his heart was beating even harder than before. He got a bad feeling. Something terrible was haunting the hospital. If it wasn't because his life depended on that he found insulin, he would've left this place a long time ago.

Now that Sean's bandage was all wet the blood had started flowing from his wound again. His arm was practically soaked in blood. He lifted his hand up and looked at it. The blood was dripping from his fingertips and into a small pool on the floor in front of his feet. It was thin from the water and so it looked worse than it was. But he probably still had to change the bandage. He could use some of the stuff he had brought with him in his pockets, but since he was in a hospital he could just as well find some and save the ones he got for later.

The elevator reached the 2nd floor, pinging and then sliding the doors open. It revealed a dark corridor only lit by the light Sean had brought with the elevator. He stepped slowly out from the elevator, looking both right and left to check if he was alright to come out. Luckily nothing was there.

He walked out into the corridor and stood there for a second, trying to figure out what direction to go. To his right the corridor ended (with a door leading to the stairway) a few feet from where he stood, but to his left it went on and into a bend. He couldn't see beyond the bend, but he could see light coming from there. Aside from a few doors and two double doors the corridor didn't have anything else in it. No furniture, no plants, nothing. It was obvious that visitors weren't allowed in this area. The lack of furniture was proof of that. He wouldn't be surprised if the little labels next to the double doors said Operating Room or Emergency Room.

Sean wasn't going to check it out, though, so he headed straight for the bend up ahead. His legs still wouldn't allow him to walk without support, so he kept to the walls, moving alongside them.

He fought his way to the bend, but stopped when he got around it. A really sturdy looking shutter was blocking his access to the rest of the hospital. He knew that the nurse station was beyond that shutter, because he recognized the area he could see on the other side. It wasn't far away from where he was, but with the shutter in the way, the nurse station could just as well have been on the moon.

Sean had no idea what to do. He couldn't break through that shutter, especially not in his current state of health. He wondered if he could access the 2nd floor from the 3rd, or perhaps from the 1st floor. It was probably possible, but it was a long way to go, and he didn't feel he could walk for much longer. He just didn't have enough strength left in him to travel that far. And what if he went to one of those floors only to find out that the shutters were down there too? Then he would again have to find another way.

Sean stood there thinking for awhile. It wasn't easy for him to concentrate when he was low on blood sugar, starved and extremely tired. But he did come to think of a thing: if a patient with diabetes went into insulin shock during surgery, they would have to give him insulin quickly. It didn't make sense for them to run all the way to the nurse station to get it, so they had to have some in the room. He wasn't sure if he was right, but it was his only shot; if there weren't any in there then he was as good as dead.

He prayed that he was right as he started going back towards the rooms with the double doors. The first one he got to said "Emergency Room" on a subtle label beside the doors. He looked through the round windows in the door, but couldn't see anything in there because the lights weren't on. Despite that, he pushed on of the doors open and went in there. He held the door open to allow the little light there was in the corridor inside, helping him to find the light switch. He found it and flipped it on, but nothing happened. After flicking it on and off a couple of times he gave up. The power was apparently gone in this section of the hospital. The elevator was still running, though, so maybe it had its own generator. It didn't really matter; it wouldn't make a difference anyway, as long as it worked.

Sean found a metal stool and placed it in the doorway, keeping the door open. The light from the corridor wasn't much, but better than nothing. Now he could see that there was a bed in the middle of the room, a cabinet to the right, a table filled with all sorts of gadgets, and scattered around the room was a lot of other equipment he didn't know the function of. The only things he could name were the ECG (electrocardiograph) and the defibrillator. The two things most people would recognize.

As he stepped deeper into the room his eyes caught something he hadn't noticed before. The bed was covered with a white sheet, but it looked like something was under it. First he had thought it was just the duvet or something, but now he could see the outlines of a face and a body. A cold chill ran down his spine.

Sean prayed that whoever was lying under the sheet had died of natural causes. He - Sean assumed judging by the size of the person - could've been bitten and died while they tried to save him. That would explain why he had been covered with the sheet. But something didn't add up; if he had been infected and died, then why was he still lying there? He had to have been dead for quite a while, seeing that everyone had left the hospital. It couldn't have happened just before he got there, no way. The man had been lying there for many hours. He couldn't be absolutely certain that he was dead for good, but he didn't feel like lifting the sheet off to check it out. For now he had to focus on finding the insulin.

He found his way to the large cabinet in the back of the room and opened it. All sorts of medicine were in there, but Sean eventually found a little box with the label insulin. He also found a small pack of insulin syringes much like the ones he used himself. He didn't know why they would have those among the other syringes, since the insulin syringes was made for self injection. Perhaps the markings in insulin units, as opposed to milliliters, made it easier for the nurses to use them. It suited Sean just fine though, he didn't feel like using an oversized syringe with a long needle. The insulin syringes had short ones, which made it easier for him to inject it, especially now that he was shaking so much.

Sean sat down on the floor, resting his back against the wall. The pain shot through his arm when he used it to support himself on the way down. His hand left a bloody handprint on the floor.

He really needed to fix that arm up again, but it would have to wait until he was finished with the insulin. Sean picked up the little box and got it open, pulling out one of the vials inside. He put the vial down and ripped open the pack of syringes. He stuck the syringe's needle into the vial and extracted the insulin in the exact amount of units he needed. Putting the vial down, he cleared the syringe for air bubbles, spraying a little of the insulin out in the process. With blurry eyes he looked at the syringe as he pulled his shirt up, and stung himself in the stomach.

A few seconds went before he suddenly felt the effect. At first he got a little tense as always, but then he suddenly went into a seizure. All his muscles seemed to contract all at once, and he went into a fetus position. The pain was unbearable and he felt like he was going to throw up again. Luckily it never happened. He could've been suffocated if he did. His jaws were locked shut so it would've had nowhere to go.

Sean's muscles continued to contract and relax for a minute or so. He gasped for air when it stopped and rolled over on his back. Staring up into the ceiling, his breathing slowly went down and he could relax again. He had never experienced a seizure like that before, so it really scared him. Something was seriously wrong with him, he knew that. But he couldn't figure out why he wasn't dead yet. It would've been easier if he just knew, because then he could accept that he was going to die. He kept feeling that there was hope left, that he was going to live through this, but he couldn't be sure of that either. The uncertainty was killing him.

_What the hell is happening to me…?_ He thought, as his eyelids got heavier and heavier. He was so tired, and soon he couldn't fight it any longer. His eyes closed and he drifted away.

xxxxxxxxxxx

The rain had stopped. Unfortunately, Sabrina was already soaked, so it didn't make much of a difference. But at least now she had the chance to dry after some time. If it didn't start to rain again, that was. The clouds still looked kind of menacing.

As Sabrina was running up along Raccoon Street, Sean's cellphone suddenly started ringing. She stopped and frantically pulled it out of her pocket. She didn't get a chance to see who was calling, because she immediately pressed the answer button and put the phone to her ear. Luckily the phone hadn't been damaged by lying in the pocket of her soaking wet pants.

"Sean?!" she said, assuming that it was him calling.

"_No, this is his father. Who am I speaking with?" _A soft and pleasant, male voice answered her. Even if he hadn't said who he was, Sabrina would still have known. She recognized his voice.

"This is Sabrina." She said, letting him know who she was, since he apparently didn't recognize her voice.

"_Oh, Sabrina! I'm glad to hear you're okay," _he said. Sabrina and him had met each other on several occasions, since her and Sean often had hung out together back when they had been in high school.

Sabrina was still a little confused. The fact that it had been Sean's father calling had surprised her, and so she had a hard time finding the right words. Also, she was a little out of breath from running, which didn't make things any easier.

"_Is Sean okay?" _he then asked, sensing that something was wrong.

Sabrina swallowed hard, but then started explaining.

"Sean is… he got separated from us," Sabrina said, looking down on the asphalt before her. "But he's alive and we know where he's heading. I'm on my way there now."

"_Is… is he okay?" _he asked, clearly shaken by the news.

"I don't know, Paul…" Sabrina answered, calling him by his first name. "We haven't been in contact with him for some time."

He went silent for a few seconds.

"_You said he was__ heading somewhere?"_ Paul then said, staying relatively calm much to Sabrina's surprise. Sean's father wasn't a cold man, but he was strong of character, just as Sean was.

Sabrina began to explain the whole situation to him, as she continued towards the hospital.

Paul was quite shaken to hear about the turn of events. His house had been burned down, his son and his friends had escaped death on more than one occasion, and now his son's life was again hanging in a thin thread.

"_You've got to get to Sean!"_ Paul begged her.

"I'll be at the hospital really soon," Sabrina said. "I just hope he's there."

"_He is… I'm sure of it," _Paul said, apparently holding on to the little hope that he had left. _"And I know that I can trust his life with you, Sabrina."_

Sabrina felt touched. She hadn't told Paul about Sean and her, but she felt good knowing that he trusted her. It was a small ray of light in a dark and disturbing sky.

She snapped out of the thought, and reminded herself that she had to stay sharp and focused. Time was running out.

"I'm almost there." Sabrina said, getting to the point.

"_Alright, I'm gonna hang up,__"_ he said, understanding that she needed her hands free. _"I'll call back in awhile. Don't call me."_ Paul quickly ended the conversation and hung up.

She thought about the last thing he had said before he hung up; _'Don't call me'_.

She wasn't sure, but it seemed like he was hiding something. Was he so busy that he couldn't be interrupted? Not even when his son was in danger? That didn't make any sense to her. Something odd was going down in Paris, and she knew it had something to do with the outbreak. She didn't have time to think about it. The situation at hand required her attention.

Sabrina put the cellphone back in her pocket. Without having to keep the phone to her ear she could now move her arms better allowing her to run faster than before. She had only been jogging while talking to Sean's dad.

Sabrina was in excellent shape, so she could normally keep going for a long time. But she was tired and she was hungry, and running at full speed drained her of energy. She decided to slow down a little bit to save her strength. She wouldn't be of much help if she was exhausted when she got to the hospital.

The streets were far from empty. Zombies were everywhere, but they were scattered around the streets in small groups or alone. They were easy to avoid, as long as she kept her eyes on the surroundings. Zombies weren't the only things she had to dodge. There were cars and all kinds of obstacles on the road. She had to be careful she didn't trip over something that would send her flying into the arms of one of the undead.

Sabrina reached the front doors of the hospital, but soon found out that the doors were locked. She figured that Sean had either locked the doors once inside or he had found the doors locked, just like she had, and had taken a different route. Or maybe he had never reached the hospital at all.

She shuttered the thought, but then she found an axe lying on one of the steps leading up to the entrance. She wondered where it could've come from. It could've been Sean, but she couldn't be sure of that. Anyone could've left it there.

She examined it closer and noticed that the blade was red of blood. She was surprised to see that it hadn't been washed away by the rain. Perhaps the blood had dried a long time ago, making it difficult to wash off. It had obviously been used as a weapon, and it would make sense if Sean had been using it, seeing that he had left the radio station unarmed.

She had to believe that he was in there. It was the only thing she could hold on to, and it was also her only lead. She had nowhere else to go.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sean opened his eyes slowly.

He was lying on his back, looking straight up at the ceiling. He didn't try to move, he just laid there for awhile.

His vision was blurry, and he had a bad taste in his mouth. His brain felt like it was two sizes too large for his skull. It was pounding in pace with his heavy heartbeat. Basically, he felt like he had a really bad hangover. The kind that would keep you in bed an entire Sunday.

Moaning in pain, he sat up. When the blood left his head again, it hurt even more than before. His vision also went out for a few seconds, showing nothing but static, like he had just woken up with a TV screen stuck to his face. And judging by how heavy his head felt, it was a big-screen TV.

Once his body stopped prickling and his sight turned to normal, he started looking around the room; the (still) occupied hospital bed, lots of heavy equipment and an open cabinet, containing all sorts of medicine. It wasn't before now he remembered where he was; the emergency room.

He sat there on the floor for a minute, waiting for the grogginess to dissipate. Then he got up on his feet and started loading the insulin syringes and the box of insulin into his pockets. There should be enough insulin in the box for a couple of days.

Before leaving the hospital he should probably change his bandage, as he had planned to do earlier. He looked around the room once more. The bandages were in the cabinet along with all the other medical supplies.

Sean was about to start taking the old one off, when he suddenly noticed he had stopped bleeding again. When he first had entered the hospital, the blood had literally been streaming out of the wound. The dark red stains on the floor where he had been lying were proof of that. There was even a trail of blood leading out to the corridor.

He gently untied the red and dirty bandage from his arm, examining the wound when he had removed it completely. Turning towards the light so he could see, he discovered that the wound had closed. It was not yet a scar, but it wasn't far from that stage of the healing process.

Sean couldn't believe his own eyes, so he gently drove his fingers over the wound to feel it. The skin felt hard and dry. Even the signs of infection was now gone. There were no red rashes around it as there had been earlier. The wound didn't itch anymore either.

He wondered whether it was necessary to wrap a bandage around the wound anymore. The wound was closed, but it could be ripped open if he wasn't careful with it. He decided to put a bandage on anyway.

After wrapping his arm up, he thought it would be best to leave the place. He had nothing else to do there, so it was time to move on to the next thing. Though, he hadn't yet decided where to go, he knew that he had to find somewhere else to hide.

Sean felt that the hospital wasn't safe, even though it appeared so. Too many things were off about the place: the sounds he had heard down in the ambulance entrance, the fact that no one was here, and the lack of dead bodies and blood, especially the last two things. The hospital would've been one of the first places to get infested by zombies, since people would go there when they had experienced the symptoms. He imagined how hell had broken loose in there, and how many people had been killed in a matter of minutes. All that would've left a lot of dead bodies, lots of blood, and not to mention zombies. He had expected to see more zombies in the place, but he hadn't even encountered one.

Sean had a bad feeling that the hospital was occupied by something much more terrifying than the zombies. Something that had driven them out or perhaps even worse; devoured them.

He felt a chill down his spine. Without a weapon he didn't stand a chance against whatever it was. He could probably take on a zombie or two barehanded, but not if he met something similar to the beast he had encountered in the grocery store. That thing had been hard to kill, even with the axe.

Sean didn't feel sick anymore. In fact he felt full of energy and ready to run a mile. That didn't mean that he could take on anything, but he felt confident that he could outrun it. Fleeing was always to prefer, fighting should be the last option. So the smartest thing he could do right now was to leave the hospital, before something nasty showed up.

He turned around and went for the double doors, which were being held open by the metal stool. Just as he was about to go out of the room, he heard a strange, disturbing yet familiar noise from the back of the room.

_Splat!_

He spun around on his feet, looking straight in the direction of the noise. In the corner of the room he saw what looked like a slug lying on the floor. What frightened him, though, was that it was about the same size of a fist.

It started moving around a little, and then it rose up from the floor as if it was scouting the room.

_Splat, splat, splat!_

Three more fell to the floor, and Sean then looked up from where they had come from; a ventilation shaft in the ceiling. More fell out of it, and they started to move in Sean's direction.

He started to back out of the door, but he stopped when the slugs suddenly stopped moving. Their attention had gone to something on the floor they were moving across. He could hear a disgusting sound coming from the slugs as they were apparently feeding from something on the floor. Then he realized what it was that they were feeding on; the small pool of blood that had formed on the floor, while he had been out cold.

He then realized something else; that the slugs weren't slugs at all, they were leeches.


	22. Slithering Darkness

**AN: Sorry for the late update... again... again.  
Didn't write as much as I should have during my three weeks of vacation. I did, however, use the last week of it writing about half of the chapter. I felt kind of bad for being so lazy the first two weeks. I've had oceans of time, but somehow all those days got blown off on reading, working on the house, watching movies and playing video games on my new HDTV ;) Got a few new games I couldn't put down. You know how it is.**

**Anyway, big thanks to all of you who reviewed the previous chapter. To you who still haven't reviewed yet: Shame on you!**

**Well, on to the chapter. I hope you're gonna enjoy it.**

We need never be ashamed of our tears.

**Charles Dickens**, _Great Expectations_  
_English novelist (1812 - 1870)_

**Chapter 22**

_Slithering Darkness_

Sean stepped backwards out of the emergency room slowly and silently.

The leeches were still feeding on the pool of blood. He could see them pulsating as they sucked it all up. The pool got smaller and smaller, and the leeches would soon be done with it. He had a feeling that their stomachs (or whatever leeches had) wouldn't get full from that small pool of blood. They would go after him next.

The leeches had followed him from the ambulance entrance down stairs, and all the way up here. They could smell his blood, even from great distances like that. The smell had traveled through the ventilation ducts, and they probably used the ducts to get to the different floors.

These leeches were of course not normal leeches. Nothing was normal in the city anymore. Apparently humans weren't the only ones getting affected by the virus. The leeches had increased in size. Not a lot, but from the size of a small mouse to a big, fat rat.

Normally leeches would stay in areas that are moist or in water, but these didn't seem affected by the dry and temperate climate of the hospital. The ambulance entrance was wet and moist because of the rain, so he could've understood it if they had stayed there. But they didn't, so these leeches had developed an independence of humidity.

Also their sense of smell seemed to have been magnified greatly. Normal leeches can't smell blood unless it's within a few feet or if they're under water.

Their strength had been enhanced too, making them able to jump a few feet into the air. And their intelligence too apparently. Leeches normally hunt alone, not in packs as they were now. Sean could tell that they had formed some sort of collective intelligence. They moved as though they were one.

Soon the pool of blood was gone, and the leeches started looking for the next to devour. Sean quickly closed the double doors, but soon realized that they weren't equipped with a lock of any kind. He just had to try and keep it closed by himself.

Through the round window in the doors, Sean could see how the leeches started moving towards him. They were moving so close together that they almost looked like they were one giant leech.

Suddenly two leeches shot out of the mass and up on the doors. Sean could feel the doors kick back slightly when they hit it. He could easily hold the doors like that.

More of the leeches hit the door, but soon they tried a different approach and started pushing all together. Shocked by their intelligence, Sean desperately tried to hold the door, but there were too many of them. If Sean didn't find something to put between the two handles, the leeches would break through the doors.

Sean scouted the corridor for something to use, but as he had remembered the corridor was pretty much cleared for objects. And he couldn't move away from the doors to try and find anything.

They pushed again, but much harder this time. Sean's shoes slid a few inches across the floor. The doors were almost open now, but he gave up a good fight and so he held it for a little longer. He thought about running for the elevator, but he was afraid that the leeches would get to him before the elevator doors would close.

The leeches removed a little of the pressure on the doors, not because they had given up, but because they were charging for a harder push. Sean saw his chance to use that and pushed as hard as he could, closing the doors fully again. He then made the decision to use his arm to hold the doors, so he put it through both handles. It was just in time as the leeches pushed with all their power.

"Argh!" he screamed as the weight of the leeches pressed on his arm.

It hurt like hell, but the doors remained closed and his arm held. Even after the leeches second and third attempt to break through. They eventually gave up, but Sean kept his arms between the handles.

The leeches started scattering around the room as though they were searching for something; perhaps another way out to Sean. They were sliding up and down the walls and suddenly one of them appeared on the round window Sean was looking through. It stopped on the middle of it as though it could see him. He looked closer at it, though it was hard to see exactly what it was doing due to the lack of light in the corridor. He realized that his head was blocking the light coming from further down the hall, so he moved it slightly to the side. The light revealed every horrifying detail of the leech's underbelly. It was covered in wet and slimy goo, leaving a trail across the pane. Apparently they produced this too keep themselves from drying out, much like slugs did, hence the independence of humidity. Worst of all, though, was the gaping, little mouth it had right in the middle; the mouth opening and closing, revealing its tiny, sharp teeth. The sight made Sean wish that he never had taken a closer look.

He'd never seen anything like this before, but then again the past days had been a line-up of things he'd never imagined existed. The zombies, the red beasts and now the leeches; it all was connected somehow. _Was it the virus, or something else?_ He couldn't be sure, but he was beginning to think that maybe he would be better off not knowing. Everything he'd seen so far could've been taken straight from a bad horror flick. He was just waiting to run into the mad scientist with the crazy, gleeful laughter, revealing his plans to take over the world. _God, I hate those movies…_

xxxxxxxxxxx

By the way things had looked down in the ambulance entrance, Sabrina had found the flashlight in her backpack, thinking it ought to be useful since the lights were out down there. If power was out in the basement area, then it would probably be out on the upper floors too. The elevator worked though and the lights inside were live, which proved to be of great help when she searched through her backpack, obviously. The light had furthermore led to the discovery of a small pool of blood on the floor. Fresh blood, she had found out by examining it closer. Someone had used the elevator recently, and that someone was seriously injured by the looks of things.

She obviously couldn't tell if the blood was Sean's, but it made sense that he would've come through here. Also she remembered that he had removed his bandage before everything had gone to shit at the radio station, and that he'd never had the time to put on a fresh one. Maybe the wound had opened again, because of the rain or because of a fight. Then again it was an awful lot of blood she was looking at, and considering how well his wound had healed… well, she couldn't really be certain of anything.

She decided that no matter whose blood it was, it was worth finding out. If it wasn't Sean, then it would probably belong to a survivor. It was a good start too, seeing that whoever was bleeding would've left a trail of blood. When she finds the floor where the trail continues she would hopefully find the bleeder.

Sabrina pushed the button that said "1st floor" and swung the backpack over her shoulder again, as the elevator started moving upwards. She grabbed her gun and the flashlight from the floor, readying herself.

The elevator stopped on the 1st floor and the doors slid open, revealing a dark corridor before her, confirming her suspicion about the power being out on the upper floors too. She turned on the flashlight and started heading out into the corridor, carefully checking it for zombies. The broad cone of light didn't reveal any threats and so her attention fell to the floor. The small section of the corridor the elevator lit up didn't show any blood trails, but to be certain she had to expand her search area a bit more; the blood didn't necessarily flow constantly out of the bleeder.

After checking about 10 feet of the corridor thoroughly without any luck, she walked back to elevator. It had closed again leaving her practically surrounded by the darkness, except for the light her torch provided. She suddenly felt claustrophobic and she got a sudden urge to run to the elevator and push the call button, but she restrained herself. _Don't be a_ _child, Sabrina. You're a little too old to be afraid of the dark._

Back when she was a kid she had been scared of the dark and she hadn't gotten rid of her phobia until late in her childhood. Her parents had never done anything proper to help her get over it and so it had just gotten worse and worse. Her dad's idea of helping her had been to remove her all light bulbs from her lamps before she went to bed. The result was that she'd been awake all night, too afraid to close her eyes. Sabrina's mom had begged for him to stop doing it, seeing what the lack of sleep did to her, but he kept telling her mom that they couldn't afford having the lights burning all night. And when she had bought Sabrina a night lamp then he had convinced her that the thing was a fire hazard. Which was bullshit, he was just angry because she had, in his opinion, wasted money on the lamp.

Her family had never had a lot of money, one of the main reasons she had moved out so early. Unlike Sean who was still living with his parents despite of his healthy income. 'No sense in moving when I have a good arrangement here', he always told her. True enough, his parents were a lot friendlier than hers; in fact she really envied him for his relationship with them… and the fact that they had never been short of money. Lots of money didn't necessarily equal happiness, but economic stability was always good.

A low, but all too familiar sound of shuffling feet snapped her out of deep thoughts and she quickly pivoted in its direction, pointing with both the torch and the Beretta. She couldn't see anything, but she kept aiming down the corridor as she pushed the call button with her elbow. _Better get going…_

xxxxxxxxxxx

Down the corridor the elevator _pinged_, announcing its arrival. Sean turned his head to look, but he still didn't remove his arm from the door handles. He wondered who it was… or what. _The zombies can't use elevators, can they?_ He thought about it for a minute._ Nah, don't be stupid, they can't even open doors for chrissake. _It had to be a person, a living one.

He couldn't help but getting a bit scared. If it turned out to be something other than a survivor, though highly unlikely, he was in deep shit. He was unarmed and he couldn't move or he'd let the leeches out.

Even if it turned out to be a survivor he wouldn't necessarily be safe. If he'd learned anything during the past days then it was that he couldn't trust anyone in situations like these. People will do anything to survive, even if that means sacrificing another man's life. _Like Alex, that self-righteous bastard, _Sean thought, remembering how he'd been treated back at the radio station.

The doors to the elevator slid open, the light from inside slowly spreading into the corridor. Sean's gaze was frozen in its direction, waiting for whoever was inside to step out.

The first thing he saw was a cone of light; first pointed to the right, then to the left. Then someone stepped out of the elevator, but before he could see who it was he was blinded by the bright light from the flashlight. He had only managed to make out the silhouette which clearly belonged to a woman. Sean lifted his free arm up in front of his eyes, blocking the light, hoping to get a better view of the person.

"Sean!" The woman suddenly said, apparently recognizing him.

At first he didn't recognize the voice, mainly because he was sure he had heard it wrong. But when she lowered the flashlight and his eyes readjusted to the dark, then he recognized her.

"Sabrina?!" He said, not believing what he saw.

She quickly ran to him and he wanted to hold her in his arms so bad, but he couldn't let go of the doors. It didn't stop Sabrina from hugging him though. She wrapped her arms around him and he hugged her back with his free arm.

"I'm so glad you're okay." She told him, smiling while a tear ran down her face.

Sean smiled, and he felt a warm and comforting feeling spread inside his cold and beaten body. At the moment she hugged him everything else seemed to go away; all the fear, all the anger, all the death around them.

It was hope he felt. The fact that he had gotten a chance to be with Sabrina again gave him hope, that maybe they were going to make it out after all. He didn't have a clue to how, but he knew that as long as they stayed together they would be okay. Nothing could harm them now.

She was soaking wet from top to bottom; she looked like a wet dog and smelled like one too, but to him she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. He had no idea how she had managed to find him, but it didn't matter. She was with him now, that was all that mattered.

Sean was speechless; he couldn't find any words that could describe how happy he felt. But suddenly a sound from the other side of the doors turned that happiness into deep concern for Sabrina's safety. The sound of metal crashing against a concrete floor made him direct his attention away from Sabrina's warm smile to the window in the door. Sabrina responded immediately too, bringing the flashlight up to the window.

The leeches had all gathered on top of the dead man lying on the hospital bed. He could see them working their way around under the white sheet.

"What the hell _is_ that?" Sabrina said, with a low and surprisingly calm voice.

Sean still didn't say anything, partly because of shock of what he was witnessing and partly because he didn't know how to begin describing it. The leeches were doing something to the dead body, but they weren't feeding on him. It was something else.

Suddenly the body fell off of the bed and onto the floor, knocking the equipment around it down with it. The cone of light shook lightly because of the shock Sabrina got from the sudden commotion. She soon found the body again with the flashlight and they saw that the dead man lying on his stomach. The leeches had fallen off the body on the impact and were now crawling back up on it. Before they covered the body completely again, Sean and Sabrina caught a glimpse of his back. It was covered with fresh, deep wounds as if the leeches had tried to eat their way into his organs through his ribcage somehow. Oddly enough most of the holes were following the dead man's spine.

The leeches crawled all over the body again, finding and making holes again. Sean could see how their dark, slimy bodies worked their way into the flesh, but only a few inches. Seconds after the leeches had covered almost the entire body from knees and up, it started moving. The body was moving. It wasn't just the leeches that made it look like it moved, no, the dead body _was_ lifting itself up from the floor. The Leech Man, as Sean now had dubbed him, got up on his naked legs, swaying slightly because of the immense weight of the hundreds of leeches.

Sean had no idea how, but they were now in control of the dead body and it was slowly heading towards him and Sabrina. Suddenly he wasn't so confident that his arm was going to hold when the weight and strength of the Leech Man came crashing on the doors. But he still didn't remove his arm from the handles. Not yet.

"Let's get the hell out of this place," Sean said to Sabrina who was still staring at the abomination in the emergency room. It had raised its arms and it was picking up speed.

"Yeah," she said, turning the flashlight towards the elevator. Its doors had slid closed again, but it was still on their floor.

"On three?" Sean asked her, as the Leech Man on the other side pushed on the doors. It was a light push, almost as if it was testing the doors.

Sabrina nodded. "One... two… THREE!"

Sean's arm slid out of the handles and he ran for the elevator, Sabrina right in front of him. In the same second the double doors to the emergency room flew open and the Leech Man stumbled out into the corridor. Some leeches fell of its upper body, but they quickly found their way up the legs again while it turned towards Sean and Sabrina once again.

Sabrina had just reached the call button and pushed it when a powerful thrust suddenly hit Sean in the back, sending him flying forward. He landed facedown on the floor, knocking his head. Groaning he got up on his hands and knees, but the feeling of pain in his forehead was soon replaced by the feeling of something wet and cold on his neck moving. Sean fell to his side, trying desperately to grab the leech with both his hands. His fingers clenched around its squishy body and he ripped it off from his back, and threw it as hard as he could in the direction of the Leech Man.

It was just about to thrust its arm toward Sean again, but it was suddenly stopped by Sabrina. She fired the nine-millimeter into the leeches, hitting it where she imagined its head was. It didn't kill it, but it had stopped it from attacking again. She fired again, one, two, three shots, but nothing happened. It wouldn't go down.

There were so many leeches covering the dead body that the bullets couldn't penetrate them. All Sabrina had accomplished was to kill about 5 of the leeches, their bodies falling to the floor with a wet _splat. _She didn't have nearly enough ammo to take them all out.

Still going strong, the Leech Man started toward them once again, now with even more speed than before, almost running. The doors to the elevator slid open, the light streaming out into the corridor, blinding Sean's eyes. Sabrina hurried inside and Sean half crawled, half ran towards her. He threw himself inside just as the Leech Man was right on top of them.

The doors closed as Sabrina pushed the button keeping him from getting inside. A leech got squashed by the slide doors, but two managed to get inside, crawling towards Sean who was lying on the floor. Sabrina was fast and stomped her foot down on one of them, and quickly on the next. A wet _pop_ came from them as they got squished underneath her sneakers. She scrapped her foot on the floor, a long smear of blood from the squished leeches to her feet. All that blood made Sean's stomach turn, but he kept it down, the acid burning in his throat. Blood didn't normally bother him, but the past days hadn't exactly been a picnic. He had been under a lot of stress, and so it wasn't odd that his stomach was in uproar. He just hoped he wouldn't develop an ulcer.

"Need help?" Sabrina asked, looking down at him. She had turned off the flashlight and tugged it into her pocket, freeing her hand so she could help him up. Sean smiled up at her and grabbed her hand. She pulled him up with incredible ease and once again impressed him with her strength.

"Thanks," he said, looking into her deep, blue eyes. "Thanks for coming to get me."

He then hugged her, burying his face in her long, dark hair. She locked her arms around him too, pressing her face against his chest.

Sabrina slowly started crying, her tears making his almost dry t-shirt wet again. "I was so scared that something had happened to you," she sniffled, speaking into his chest.

"It's okay, I'm here now." Sean said to her, comforting her as best as he could. Even _he_ had to struggle to keep from crying. He had been scared that he was never going to see her again, that he would've died without telling her how much he loved her. She meant the world to him and he knew that he meant the world to her too. Not a lot of people would put their life on the line as she had done for him. She had ignored fear and pain to try and save him, even though all odds had been against her; she was the most selfless person he had ever known. That was why he felt like crying. That was why he loved her.

"Promise me that you're never gonna leave me again," Sabrina whispered, looking up at him from his chest. She smiled vaguely at him. "Promise?"

Sean leaned his head down and kissed her, long and deeply, hugging her even tighter than before.

"I'm never gonna leave you again," he promised her, wiping a tear away from her blushed cheek. _Never again,_ he thought and held her into his chest again. _Never…_

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sabrina's escape had been successful, but Pat and Mike had suffered the consequences because the others had discovered Tom lying in the bathroom, unconscious. The brothers had been pulled out of their little room and had been questioned thoroughly by a very angry and frustrated Alex, but they hadn't kept anything from him. They had told him everything he wanted to know, but Pat just couldn't see the point in him asking all those questions at all. He couldn't do a damn thing about Sabrina's escape anyway.

Alex had threatened them, telling them that if they ever tried pulling a stunt like that again then he would shoot them on sight. Pat didn't doubt for a second that the man was capable of it, but he had told him to go copulate with himself anyway. Alex had obviously been furious at this, but he hadn't touched him because there had been other survivors in the room. Smacking Pat and Mike around would probably have made him a bit unpopular. Besides, if he ever laid a hand on Mike, Pat would tear his head off. Alex could beat Pat up all he wanted, but his brother was off limits.

After Alex's little power trip, Pat and Mike had been put back and "security" had been tightened a little. From now on they couldn't go to the bathroom without having at least two people escorting them. The brothers couldn't care less, as long as Sabrina had gotten out and was okay. And that they still had Pat's cellphone; the others hadn't even thought about checking their room, luckily.

After all that Pat had gone to sleep and he had been out for a long time. He had no idea for how long exactly since he didn't have a watch or anything, but he knew that he had been gone for quite some time. His head was feeling a lot better now, probably the doing of the many hours of sleep. The painkillers had done wonders too. He felt his head for bumps, but found nothing but a sore spot. The swelling had gone almost completely. _That's always something_, he thought, getting up from the floor so he could rest his back against the wall instead. He was a little tired of lying down. The floor wasn't exactly the ideal place to be lying.

Mike didn't seem to be bothered about it though. He was fast asleep, resting his head on one of the pillows the others had spared them. Mike had been sitting up most of the night, because he couldn't sleep. That was what he had told Pat, but he had apparently given in to it anyway. He wasn't surprised, though, because Mike had probably been very exhausted from sitting there worrying about Sean and Sabrina. It was quite a mind job, but it didn't help sitting there going sick of worry. There was nothing they could do at this point but wait. Besides, Sean and Sabrina were strong in both body and mind. They were fighters both of them. _If anyone can survive a zombie-virus outbreak, then it's them, _Pat reassured himself, trying to stay optimistic.

In spite that the lights were turned off, Pat could easily see his brother sleeping. His eyes had adjusted while he had been sleeping, so he could see pretty much everything in the room clearly. Except for the colors; everything was either gray or black, because of the lack of light. Only a little light was filtered through the frame of the door from the other room.

Mike twitched a little and mumbled something in his sleep. He was dreaming. By the calm tone of his voice Pat guessed that it wasn't a nightmare. He smiled at Mike, surprised to see that he was having a good dream, but happy for him. _At least _he_ is getting some proper sleep_, Pat thought. He hadn't slept very well. Not because of nightmares, but more because he hadn't dreamt anything. He rarely ever did. When he went to sleep it was like he had just closed his eyes and opened them again, and it would be morning. Dreams gave the mind something to work with, giving you a sense of time, but sleeping dreamless didn't. People often told him that he _was_ dreaming, but he just couldn't remember the dreams when he woke up. He didn't believe that himself; he knew that he wasn't dreaming, because every morning, when he hadn't been dreaming, he felt like the time had been taken from him. That was why he rarely slept more than 5 or 6 hours. It was more than enough for him anyway. He always got up early so he could get his morning run around the blocks. Many was surprised that he had the energy, but Pat had always been more energetic than most. Maybe that was why he didn't sleep very well; too much energy perhaps. But all in all it wasn't really a problem for him since he wasn't affected by it during the day. It just made him wonder why people were so different when it came to sleeping.

Mike turned around so he faced the wall instead of Pat. His arm had probably been sleeping, Pat guessed. He had been turning a lot in his sleep Pat had noticed. It was because of the floor. There was a carpet on it alright, but it was far from pleasant to be lying on.

Pat still felt stiff in his back from lying on it, so he decided to get up and stretch his back and legs a little. Groaning at the pain in his back and head and the numbness in his ass, he got up and stretched himself as much as he could, yawning. Once the pain and numbness had gone, he noticed the need to go to the bathroom. His bladder was practically screaming to be emptied.

Pat knocked on the door, but silently, trying not to disturb Mike's sleep. Nothing happened, so he knocked again, this time harder than before; still nothing.

_That's __odd_, Pat thought, wondering if they had fallen asleep too. Usually they were there to open the door in a heartbeat.

Pat pressed his ear against the door, trying to listen for any noises. _If I hear them snoring then, I swear to God, I'm gonna kick the door down._

Not a sound could be heard. Nothing.

He got down to his knees and looked under the door. There was a small gap underneath it, so if he pressed his head to the floor he could get a look at what was going on in the other room. He could just make out the couch, the coffee table and the chairs, but no feet. It was impossible to tell if there was anyone lying on the couch, because he couldn't see that high up, but he couldn't imagine anyone lying there. Most people wore shoes in there and they just didn't seem the type that would ruin such a nice leather couch with their shoes.

Pat continued to look around the room, hoping to spot anyone, but without any luck. _Where the hell is everybody at?_ Something wasn't right.

He shifted his body around so he could see the other way, towards the door to the hallway. He followed the carpet until he spotted a dark smear on the wall, just above the floor. His heart froze in a beat. It was blood…


	23. Born to Lead

**AN: It's finally time for a new chapter. I'm really sorry that it took me so long to get it done.  
****My excuse: I've been** **very busy with school. I was in school for five weeks because of my final exam which took ten days in total. I passed the exam with style, getting a B for the whole thing. So now I'm officially a fully-educated machinist. Wohoo, I guess. Not much of an accomplishment, but it's a job and I make good money.  
Also I crashed my car during the first week of school. I'm okay, but the car isn't. Had to deal with a lot of insurance crap and I also had to find a new car.  
All that kind of took away all my energy, but I started writing again as soon as I got back from school which was two weeks ago. Wrote the whole damn thing in those two weeks just so you wouldn't have to wait any longer. **

**This chapter turned out pretty well I think. I sure had fun writing it, even though writing +500 words a day was pretty exhausting. Well, okay, not _every_ day, only Monday to Thursday, but still. **

**I hope you'll like it :)**

The only cure for grief is action.

**George Henry Lewes**

**Chapter 23**

_Born to Lead_

_Mike, wake up_, a distant voice whispered.

A strong hand locked around his arm, shaking him.

_Mike…-_

"Mike! Wake up, dammit!"

He opened his eyes, his vision blurry, couldn't quite make out who was pulling on his arm.

Then he remembered where he was; the radio station, Sean and Sabrina gone, alone in the room with his brother.

"Wake up, man," Pat said to him and stopped pulling on his arm when Mike's eyes met with his.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm up," Mike mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "What is it?"

He couldn't see Pat's expression clearly in the dark, but from what he could make out of it he looked terrified. It made a quick chill run down his spine and so he sat up quickly, getting the feeling that something was seriously wrong.

"I think something's happened," Pat said, his voice almost shaking. "There's a lot of blood in the other room and I can't see anyone out there."

Mike's heart suddenly started beating faster than before, his mind racing too. He thought about what could've happened; the zombies could've busted through the shutter, or something else could've gotten inside. A monster, like the ones they had encountered on their way out of the apartment building. Either way it was bad news.

"Wha-what do you think happened?" Mike finally asked, hoping that Pat had a perfectly reasonable explanation to what he had seen. An explanation that wasn't as disturbing as his own. It was wishful thinking of course. No way could missing people and a room splattered with blood be anything good, no matter how much he twisted and turned it.

"I don't know," Pat said, but he probably had an idea, he just didn't want to talk about it. He was probably hoping he was wrong just as Mike did. "But we can't stay here, that's for sure."

Pat got up from the floor and tried turning the handle, but just as Mike had expected, it was locked. No such luck.

"Screw this!" Pat said, stepping a few steps back and then planting his foot right around the door's handle, kicking it open. The frame splintered, wood flying everywhere.

Mike got up and followed Pat out of the tiny room, which had been getting more and more claustrophobic to stay in especially now that something was loose in the radio station. It was practically a relief to get out even though they probably weren't any safer outside of the small room, than inside.

Out in the waiting room, the same room they had been led through when Natasha had shown them around, they stopped. Mike scanned the room, quickly, but there was no sign of anyone in there. Not any signs of struggle either. Apart from the smear of blood on the wall, the room looked pretty much as it did before.

Pat went to investigate the blood a little closer, staying on guard as he did so. The door to the hallway was closed and the room was apparently empty, but he wasn't taking any chances.

While Pat checked out the blood, Mike went to the small room where they had placed the monitors for the cameras. Maybe they showed something that could give them a hint to what was going on. He checked the room carefully before entering, and then took a look at the small TV screens. There were two, both showing the lobby downstairs. It was empty. No zombies or anything like it.

Mike turned back, but got startled by his brother, who already stood at the door opening.

"Did you find anything?" Pat asked.

"No, the lobby's empty. There's nothing down there."

Pat looked over his shoulder, checking the door in the other room. "That doesn't necessarily mean that nothing happened. They could be inside," Pat said, looking at his brother again.

_I hope not,_ Mike thought.

"What about you? What did you find out?" Mike then asked.

Pat checked the door again. "Well, somebody's bleeding a lot. The blood isn't spattered on the wall, but more like applied, like someone with a bloody shirt sat down to rest or something," Pat said, and Mike looked puzzled at him. "Anyway, that means that the fight definitely didn't happen in here."

"Another thing; the guns are gone," Pat added.

"All of them?" Mike said, though now that he remembered it the table where the guns had been kept was empty.

"Yeah, all of them." Pat sighed.

"That's weird. We haven't heard any shots at all," Mike said, frowning. _Not any screams either_…

"We need to arm ourselves with something else then. I'll look around to see if I can find anything. You should do the same," Pat said, and left the monitoring room.

Mike looked around himself, and was just about to leave when he found a broom in the corner. He grabbed it and felt the weight of it. _This seems okay, _he thought, and tried to bend it over his knee. It didn't break.

Mike, with the broom in his hand, stepped out of the monitoring room just as Pat kicked a chair into pieces. He picked up one of the legs, which was big, squary and looked heavy. Testing it he swung it back and forth, but stopped when he turned around and saw Mike.

"A broom? Are you kidding me?" Pat asked, mocking his brother's choice of weapon.

"Just you wait, bro," Mike said and stomped on the head of the broom, breaking it off with a loud crack. The result was a long stick with a pointy end. Mike held it up and looked at it with pride.

"Clever," Pat said and nodded. "Let's get going then."

Pat stood at the door with his hand on the doorknob and Mike was ready to stab anything that might show up in the doorway when Pat would open the door.

Pat counted down from 3 and swung the door open; empty hallway. They moved out into it, checking both directions before they did. Still empty.

They had both decided that they should go down and check if the shutters had been broken through. And if so, that would probably be where the other survivors would've taken their stand. But nothing added up. They hadn't heard any gunshots, screams or anything, and if the zombies had gotten through the shutters somehow, where were they now? It didn't make much sense to any of them, and that was why they had to check the stairs on the 2nd floor out first. They could check out the 4th floor later.

_If we get that far,_ Mike thought to himself.

They hurried down the hallway to the staircase, Pat in the lead. Mike checked over his shoulder frequently making sure their back was covered. Just as Pat was about to open the door to the staircase, Mike heard a sound and stopped him.

"Wait!" Mike whispered, loudly. "Did you hear that?"

Pat let go of the doorknob and listened.

"I don't hear any-"

That was all Pat managed to say before he was cut short by a wet _click. _They both listened carefully.

_Click_ There it was again.

The sound seemed oddly familiar to Mike, but he just couldn't put a finger on it.

"It's coming from somewhere above us," Pat said, looking up at the ceiling as if he expected to see the source of the sound up there. Nothing was there of course.

"Let's just get downstairs. We can check it out later," Mike said, wanting to move on as quickly as possible. Odd sounds were rarely good news.

Agreeing, Pat opened the door to the stairs and they both went down to the 2nd floor, ready with their wooden weapons. The shutters turned out to be intact. Not even any damage on them. But something had happened alright, because the 2nd floor hall was splattered with blood and guts.

"Jesus…" Mike said, not believing what he was seeing, didn't _want_ to believe it. The images practically flashed through his mind as he looked away, like they were burned onto his retinas. The big room's floor was covered in gallons and gallons of blood, and dead bodies were lying all over the place. It was like a goddamn slaughter house.

-

Pat wasn't as shocked as his brother. He had seen his share of crime scenes on the job, so he was more used to it. He hadn't seen anything quite as brutal and disturbing as this though. In spite that he stepped into the room, but still with the chair leg ready. He counted the bodies; there were 6 of them. _Christ…_

Mike was still standing out at the stairs, Pat noticed. He could hear him vomit a few seconds later. He managed to keep his own stomachs contents in, though. Not that there was much in it, after all he hadn't been eating in a while. Anyway, it wasn't the smell that bothered him. These people hadn't been dead long enough. The only thing he could smell was the heavy stink of copper, of blood. Not nauseating, but far from pleasant.

Pat stepped closer to one of the corpses to see if he could find out some more about what had happened. He couldn't recognize the man lying in front of him, because his face was mauled pretty badly. He wasn't sure if it was anyone he knew anyway. Even though he and his friends had stayed at the radio station for quite some time, he hadn't met all of the other survivors.

Pat didn't bother checking his vitals, because the man's body was in such a bad mess that he couldn't have lived through it. Not the other 5 either. If they hadn't been killed instantly by their wounds, then they had definitely died from blood loss. The carpet was soaked with so much blood that he would be surprised if there was anything left in the poor souls' bodies.

He felt a little bit surprised with himself for staying so calm about what he was seeing. Maybe the past days events had left him with sort of mental numbness, or maybe he was simply loosing it. The thought scared him, made him feel vulnerable and weak. He had always been strong, even through the harsh times he and his brother went through when their parents died 5 years ago. Pat had been forced to cope with the whole situation quickly, so that he could take care of his brother. He hadn't had the time to deal with the loss as Mike had had. Ever since that he had been stronger than ever, like he had grown as a person by the painful events. He had learned to control his feelings, to stay on top of things and create order in chaos. Not all people could do that, especially not his brother. Mike could take care of himself alright, but if things got bad, he wouldn't be able to handle them. Pat had always been there for him whenever he was in trouble, like a big brother should. It was a gift he put to good use when he was on his job too. As a policeman he always stayed strong and never lost his head when things got bad. He couldn't help people if he lost it, if he let the chaotic fear of his mind take over.

But this was different, this was worse than anything he had ever experienced and yet he kept calm. And it was scaring because he shouldn't be calm. He should be out there at the stairs, puking his guts up like his brother did. But no, some part of him couldn't do that, wouldn't let go. He was in control, had to stay there.

Pat got up, exhaled deeply and started going through the bodies. He tried to figure out what exactly had happened to them, while he picked up the guns they had carried.

-

Out by the stairs Mike had finally gained control of his stomach again. Mostly because he didn't have anything left to puke up. After a few more convulsive attempts of vomiting some more, he got up and wiped his mouth. He looked down at the little puddle he had made on the carpet. _What a mess,_ he thought, but he had at least done it beside the stairs and not _on_ the steps.

His head hurt and he was left with a really bad taste in his mouth. By God, it was even in his nose. It smelled awful, but better than the copper smell, the reminder of the gory display in the other room.

Pat finally came back out to him, Mike trying not to look past him when walked up to him. He carried a handful of guns, Mike noticed. There was blood on them, but he ignored it for now.

"What the hell happened to them?" Mike asked, his voice low and coarse from vomiting. His throat was on fire.

Pat placed the guns on the floor.

"I'm not sure, but something got to them alright. Fast," Pat said, speaking softly. Mike could tell it had disturbed Pat. "Not one of them ever got the chance to fire their guns."

"Jesus…" Mike said, putting a hand to his forehead.

"Whatever it was, it came through the ceiling," Pat continued and then pointed towards the room. Mike didn't look up to see where his finger pointed. He didn't want to look inside that room again.

Mike sighed deeply, still looking down on the floor. "Anyone we knew?" He asked, his voice trembling.

"Yeah…" Pat sighed. "Eric, the guy that knocked me out earlier… he's dead… and uhm… Natasha is… is in there too."

Mike's heart sank. He hadn't talked to Eric, but he had seemed like a nice guy apart from the fact he had knocked his brother unconscious. But Natasha… God, Natasha he had talked to, and she had been so nice to all of them. He had really liked her.

Mike looked up at his brother, but he could see that he had more to say.

"Alex is dead too," Pat told him, looking him straight in the eyes. Mike could tell that even though Alex had been a complete asshole and borderline psychotic, Pat felt sorry for his demise. Mike himself hadn't had much left for the man. At some point he had wanted Alex dead, but knowing now that he actually _was_ dead he felt ashamed for ever wishing it. None of these people had deserved to die. Not even him.

The two went silent for awhile. Partly because of them mourning over the death of Eric, Alex, Natasha and the rest, but also because they were out of words.

Pat broke the silence. "We need to keep going, Mike."

"Yeah, just give me a minute," he said and wiped his eyes.

When he looked back up at his brother, he was handing him a gun.

"Here's your .357," Pat said, holding out the revolver Mike had had earlier.

Pat had wiped it clean of blood, he could tell. Mike couldn't help but smile vaguely at that, as morbid as it did seem. That was typical Pat, he thought, he always had strength left to help with the smallest things, even in the hellhole of a situation they were in.

Mike looked up to his brother, admired his strength and bravery. In his eyes his brother was invincible, though he had been proven wrong several times the past days. Pat had been hurt badly, but he had gotten right back on his feet despite the pain. That had only made Mike's thoughts of him even higher.

_I can always count on you, bro,_ Mike thought, looking at Pat, but he didn't say it. _Unlike me… I'm a coward…_

As though his brother read his mind, he said: "It's okay, bro. I understand if you're scared."

Pat placed a soothing hand on his shoulder.

"Hell, I'm scared too," he admitted. "But we have to keep it together, 'cuz who knows what we'll find up stairs. We have to clear this place out, so when Sean and Sabrina comes back they'll have a safe place to be, alright?"

Mike nodded, his jaws getting tight.

"We're gonna kill whatever thing attacked Natasha and the others, alright?!" Pat said, obviously trying to build some anger up into him.

Mike knew what he was trying to do. Back when they were still kids Mike had always been kind of a crybaby whenever he got hurt, but Pat had been there helping him. He remembered this one time when they had been out riding their bikes, Mike had hit a small rock on the road and had fallen to the ground. The asphalt had messed up his knee pretty bad, and he had started crying. Pat had helped him to his feet, had placed the rock that had caused him to fall in his hand and told him to throw it as far away as he could. It did seem a little stupid, but at the time it had helped him turn his pain into anger.

And it was working now too; his heart started racing and his clenched fists got burning hot. Anger was better than despair.

"Yeah!" He answered through his teeth as he bit harder together than before. He felt as if he bit much harder, his teeth would shatter.

"We're gonna make that fucker pay!" Pat yelled finally and punched Mike's shoulder so hard that it sent a jolt of pain down his arm. He didn't flinch, but instead used it to further fuel his rage.

Mike cocked his gun and they both started up the stairs.

-

Pat was first through the door to the 4th floor hallway. He had taken the most powerful weapon he had found amongst the guns he had found downstairs; Eric's Mossberg shotgun. It was a 12 gauge just as Sean's Benelli that Pat had been using earlier. Besides the Mossberg, he had taken a 9 mm too. It was a small Glock; it looked like the 17 model. All the other guns he had found downstairs had been 9 mm's too, apart from the .357 revolver he had given to Mike. Pat would've felt better if he had a .45 caliber instead of the 9 mm. Normally he didn't have anything against the caliber, but right now it felt insufficient.

_Good thing I have the Mossberg then,_ he thought, the weight of the shotgun making him feel much safer. It wasn't like when he was on duty; he needed something powerful to knock these creatures down with. As a policeman he had learned to hurt, not to kill the threat. Now he had to do the exact opposite. He had to aim to kill, and so he had to choose the most powerful weapon he could find. A machinegun had probably been to prefer, but a shotgun was good too. He had experienced that first hand over the last days.

Standing in the hallway, both he and Mike listened carefully. The clicking noise had stopped, which was somewhat comforting but also a little unnerving. It could mean that whatever it was that made the sound had gone away, but then Pat couldn't help thinking where it had went. Or if it was keeping quiet, trying to lure his brother and him into a false sense of security.

Of course the clicking sound could also have been something else, like a broken relay somewhere, but he couldn't help thinking that his first impression had been right. It was something living, and it was on the move.

They both moved down the hallway towards the door that lead to the room where all four of them had been resting before things had gone to shit. Pat hadn't heard anything from inside the room so far, but as they got closer he could hear whispering and footsteps.

As he was just about to open the door, Mike suddenly yelped and he spun around to see. Paul, the guy that Sabrina had knocked out to escape, had snuck up behind them and had grabbed Mike by the shoulders. Except it wasn't Paul anymore, he had turned into a zombie and was now about to feed on Pat's brother.

Mike panicked and dropped his gun on the floor. Luckily it didn't go off, because Pat would surely have been hit if it had. But Pat's thoughts weren't focused on that. He was trying to get a shot at Paul, but it was an impossible shot to make. The hails would hit Mike as well if he pulled the trigger. Instead he dropped the shotgun and, quicker than he ever had done it, he pulled out the Glock. Paul was just about to sink his teeth into Mike's neck when Pat pulled the trigger and sent him falling backwards, his arms flailing as he went down. Paul hit the floor with a dull thump.

Mike turned and looked at the body, then looked back at his brother, his eyes still radiating with fear.

"Jesus-christ, are you alright?" Pat asked, lowering the smoking gun.

But before Mike could ever answer his question, the clicking sound returned, silencing them both as if the sound had sucked the air out of them both. The clicks traveled fast above them, moving along the ceiling. It stopped just above Pat and before he could lift his gun over his head, something crashed through the plaster of the ceiling.

The thing landed on him, his legs succumbing to the immense weight of it. His eyes had closed in reflex so he couldn't see the creature, but he could feel the wet, sinewy musculature as he tried to push it off.

He finally opened his eyes, finding that a true monster was lying on top of him. He stared right into the face of the horrifying creature as it breathed into his. It was so close to him that he could see all the details clearly; a fleshless face with no eyes, not even sockets, just red, slimy muscle tissue. Its brain was exposed; no skin was covering it at all. No skin on the monster's entire body. It was all exposed muscles and bones.

It opened its mouth with a wet and chilling moan, and out came its tongue. It slit slowly towards Pat's face and his heart seemed to stop beating. He wouldn't have been surprised if his hair suddenly went white and started to fall off.

He was paralyzed with fear and for once he didn't have a clue to what he was going to do. Even his mind was fighting him, because no matter how hard he tried he couldn't stop starring into the mouth of the monster where the seemingly endless tongue kept growing from. He didn't hear his brother screaming and he didn't see him kicking wildly at the back of the creature, even though that was exactly what Mike was doing. It was like he had been thrown into the darkness where only he and the beast existed. All he saw, felt and heard was the skinless monster.

The monster raised its arm, about to slash him, but Pat couldn't move. Instead he stared at the fleshy lump that its arm ended in. It had long, bone looking claws growing out of it instead of fingers. If this thing had been human once, then there wasn't much left in it.

Pat closed his eyes, bracing himself, but instead of feeling the skin-ripping pain of claws through his chest, he felt the weight on top of him increase. His eyes flustered open and he saw his brother _grabbing_ the monster. Mike was trying to save his brother from what was probably the most horrifying creature they had both ever laid their eyes on. He watched in amazement as Mike practically ripped the monster off him, but fell backwards because he couldn't carry its weight.

Pat snapped out of his trance and screamed: "MIKE! NO!"

But it was too late. The monster was on top of his brother, struggling to get free and it did. It was quickly back on its feet (and arms), but so was Pat. It lunged itself at Mike with claws ready to strike and Pat leaped.

As he flew through the air like a cruise missile, everything seemed to slow down. He watched as his brother raised his arms to shield himself, his mouth locked in a permanent scream. The monsters muscles expanding and contracting as it raised its fleshy fist, the yellow-white claws piercing the air. The monster was strangely fixed at Mike in spite of it missing its eyes. It never saw Pat coming.

Time sped up to normal speed, and then; collision, pain and darkness.

xxxxxxxxxxx

The heavy _thump thump thump _of the rotors was the only sound that filled the cabin of the helicopter. It was a Sikorsky UH-60, more commonly known as a Black Hawk, one that he had been aboard many times. Both back in his days in the Special Forces and nowadays where he worked for Umbrella Corp.

As he sat in his seat in the back, leaning against the humming wall, he practically felt at home in the loud and shaking machine. It was nice to get to operate with the sort of equipment he knew. Not a big fan of changes. "Go with what you know," he had always said.

And being a soldier _was_ really all he knew. He had been a soldier ever since he joined the Marine Corps at an age of 18. The training was tough, but he quickly grew to like the military. Everything was so organized and carefully planned. He liked that. Life outside the military had always been too chaotic and he had been an outcast all the way through highschool. But the military had taken him in, had taken him under their rough eagle wings and had taught him how to live, how to fight.

When he had worked his way up the ranks he had finally been offered a chance with the Special Forces and he had accepted. They had shaped his mind and his body into rock, made him a _real_ soldier. They had taught him not only to fight, but to kill, without remorse.

He had been sent on covert missions to operate deep in countries where American military wasn't even allowed to be. He had killed many men in combat, not feeling good about it, but not bad either. No remorse. He had soon stopped feeling anything at all when killing another man. Perhaps it was there it had gone wrong somehow.

One day, a sunny Saturday as he could recall, he had been on leave from his unit and he had decided to go into town, just to see how it felt being out in society again. He had strolled down the street, observing other people as they were driving their cars, riding their bikes and walking around with their kids. He quickly felt suffocated by the amount of people everywhere, too many things happening around him, too much input. So he had entered a small drugstore as a means to escape all the busy people outside.

He didn't regret much of his life, if anything, but he regretted ever walking into that drugstore. He should've stayed outside.

While he was in the drugstore he had decided to get something to drink. All that chaos outside had made his mouth dry. He had grabbed a coke and was about to walk up to the counter to pay for it, when suddenly two young men in black hoodie's had pulled out a gun and a switchblade knife.

"Open the fuckin' register!" the one with the gun had yelled to the cashier. The other guy who had a knife was watching his buddy's back. The hooded robber never saw it coming though, because the second he turned his head to look at how his buddy was doing, the soldier grabbed his arm and broke the joint in the wrong direction. He ripped the knife out of the robber's hand and jabbed it into the other guy's neck, making him drop the pistol at once.

But the mistake was that he didn't stop there. He grabbed the guy with the broken arm from behind and stabbed him through his ribcage, puncturing his lung. Then he had slit his throat, carving his neck open from ear to ear. They had both died within seconds.

His attorney had hoped the court would agree to say that he did it in self-defense, but because of his military training they had instead come to the conclusion that he could've handled the situation differently. He was found guilty for manslaughter, receiving a sentence of 7-10 years and so he lost all chances of ever re-entering the military.

He felt like his life had ended and because of that he hadn't behaved through the duration of his sentence. He ended up spending all 10 years in prison.

When he got out, he didn't even feel like leaving. He hated the civil life, but he was soon contacted by a shady looking man in a trench coat, asking him about his military background. He had been happy to talk to the stranger since he was showing so much interest in his former career. The man in the trench coat had then offered him a job and he had accepted it at once. He was now a soldier for hire working for the major pharmaceutical company Umbrella.

At the time he hadn't been able to figure out what a pharmaceutical company needed soldiers for, but he hadn't complained. The company was a big player in a number of markets; pharmaceuticals, medical hardware, defense, and computers. But he had soon been introduced to the darker sides of the company, the more clandestine operations like genetic engineering and bio weapons.

He didn't have anything against Umbrella's illegal and highly unethical activities, as long as he was back in the game as a soldier. That was where he belonged. He didn't see himself as a mercenary, a gun for hire, but more like a real soldier, as he used to be. He just worked for someone else than the government, that was the only difference. To him at least.

Now he was sitting in a helicopter on his way out on yet another mission, serving in the interests of his employers. His team was sitting in the opposite side of the helicopter, watching him carefully. They all wore their combat gear; black boots, black tear-proof jumpsuits, black combat vests with back-up pistols, extra mags, radios and other gadgets, knee and elbow pads, and black gloves. They all had their gasmasks in their hands, waiting for the order to put them on as soon as they arrived at the designated LZ.

He knew their faces well, as he had worked with them many times on numerous missions, but he didn't know their names. He only knew them as Two, Three and Four, their designated codenames. He himself was the team leader. His codename was obviously One.

They had been briefed about the situation in Raccoon City before they took off, but they hadn't been told about the details of the mission. One was supposed to brief them before drop-off.

"Listen up!" He spoke up, so his gruff voice could be heard over the noise of the Black Hawks blades cutting through the air. "Our objective is to extract a sample from somewhere around the Raccoon City hospital."

They nodded, confirming the location. They had studied the layout of the city since they had been called in a few days ago. They had all been called in because Umbrella knew that the team would come in handy at some point, and they had at several times. It wasn't the first time they had been sent on a mission into the city during the last couple of days. The team had been sent in to extract information or to destroy incriminating evidence. Of course they weren't the only team that had been ordered in, but they were certainly the best, which was why they had gotten this mission.

"What is this sample, sir?" Three asked, his voice young and higher pitched than any of the others on the team. One didn't know his exact age, but he knew he was the youngest of them all.

"I'm glad you ask, soldier, because this is exactly why this operation is different," One said, not at all bothered by Three's forwardness. He had allowed his teammates to speak freely whenever they wanted to. But that didn't mean he was going to listen to them. "We've been sent in to collect a blood sample."

"From a B.O.W?" Four asked, his bulky face tightening as he frowned.

"No, human," One answered, looking Four straight in the eyes. He frowned even more than before.

"Why would they need a sample from a human?" Four continued.

"That's classified, soldier," One responded. "Not even I've been informed of the reason."

Four scoffed along with Three. Only Two stayed silent.

"Same old story," Three went. "We're only on need-to-know basis."

The helicopters pilot spoke over the com: _"2 minutes to drop-off!"_

One looked back at his team who all looked at him, waiting for orders.

"Check your weapons!" He said, pulling out his own. They all carried the same weapons; Belgian sub-machineguns FN P90's, and as back-up they had H&K USP pistols. The USP's using .45 caliber rounds, and the P90 using low-caliber 5.7 x 28 mm rounds, both hollow points to achieve as much stopping-power as possible. The short barrel and rather large magazines on P90's had proven very useful against the "carriers". The other teams usually picked the standard Colt M4's or M16's, but One's team had specifically requested to get the P90's because of the usefulness they had shown on previous missions involving carriers.

"Weapons O.K.!" They all confirmed at the same time, slinging their P90's over their backs again.

"Radio check!" One then continued.

They all switched on their radios, all of them tuning in on the same channel. They tested them all and then put them in their holsters located on the shoulders of their vests.

"All O.K.! We are ready to go!" The team shouted all together again.

One nodded at them and looked to the cockpit.

"_Drop-__off in 30 seconds!"_ the pilot announced.

One pulled up his balaclava and put it on, so did the rest of the team.

"Gasmasks on!" he yelled to them and pulled his own over his head.

**AN2: Har har! A double cliffie for ya!  
Yeah, I wanted to introduce new characters and so I did.  
Also I decided to split the chapter up everytime we switch POV. I know I've messed that up a lot in the earlier chapters, but I think this works better. I hope you think the same.**


	24. Revelations

**AN: Hey out there! Finally got around to finish this chapter. I don't recall how long it has been since I last posted one, but I think it's been more than a month now. For that I'm sorry. I really am. I've been trying my best to keep writing everyday, but sometimes it's just hard to keep the inspiration flowing. Some days I just sit and stare at my keyboard, unable to get even a single word down. But then there are other days where the tiny drips of ideas turn into a river and then it's hard to stop again, hehe. It mostly happens when I'm getting close to finishing the chapters. Kinda like when you can spot the finish line and you start sprinting the last piece of way.****  
****Anyway, I want to thank all of my reviewers again. My story's reached over a hundred reviews now which is pretty damn awesome. I never imagined that I would get so many when I first started writing. So thank you all, and especially Blues32 for being reviewer #100!**  
**You guys rock!**

It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

**J. K. Rowling**, _British fantasy author_

**Chapter 24**

_Revelations_

Monday  
September 28th, 1998

Sean was lying in a king-sized double bed with his arms around the girl of his dreams. A soft and warm duvet covered their naked bodies as they lay there half asleep. The duvet smelled as if it was newly laundered and Sabrina's hair smelled like fresh peaches.

Soon they would both get up. Sean would pull the curtains apart and let the beautiful day light up the room. The birds would be tweeting and kids would be playing in the park nearby. Perfect morning.

Sabrina would get up from bed and wander to the bathroom where she would take a long and hot shower. He would join her and under the running water he would take her. Perfect morning.

They would make breakfast in the kitchen together. He would make the scrambled eggs and she would make the bacon. The toast would pop of from the toaster and the breakfast would be done. The scrambled eggs and bacon would taste heavenly on the toast and the fresh orange juice would soothe their dry throats. They would eat and drink till they were full. Perfect morning.

Sean sighed. The truth was unfortunately far from all that.

He was lying in a small, uncomfortably hard bed with only a blanket as cover. It smelled like wet dog and Sabrina smelled like week old sweat.

If Sean got up and pulled the white curtains with repulsive yellow stains aside, he would find that it was getting dark again. Down on the streets he would probably see the birds he had imagined attacking the already zombiefied kids that had been playing in the park.

The apartment they were in had a bathroom alright, but it wasn't one that you would want to visit, unless you felt like contracting a disease. So showering was not an option either, let alone _sex_ in the shower.

There was no food in the apartment, and if there had been then they probably didn't dare to eat it anyway. The entire kitchen was a mess, and the sink was no exception. It pretty much looked like it had been used as a toilet at some point. No way they were gonna drink water from that. They would both have to go on empty stomachs and dry throats.

Sean and Sabrina had sure picked a dump to stay in, but it was better than staying at the hospital where they had been stalked by bloodsucking leeches. After escaping them narrowly, they had taken the elevator down to the ambulance entrance and had left the hospital the same way they had both entered. They had both been exhausted and decided to find a place to stay for some time, just so they could save up some energy for their trip back to the radio station. An old and rundown apartment complex was the first thing they had come across. It wasn't very far from the hospital and the walk there had luckily gone without trouble. No zombies or demons or monsters on the way. It had seemed Hell's creatures were busy elsewhere.

Once they had gotten inside the complex they had walked up the stairs to the top floor and had picked this apartment. To believe it, it was actually the nicest of the four there had been. After clearing the apartment they had locked the flimsy entrance door and had moved the fridge in front of it, just to make sure. The apartment was apparently so small that the entrance and kitchen had to be one room.

"Kinda looks like my place…" Sabrina had said, and Sean had sent her a dubious look. He had never visited her apartment. "Mine has less diarrhea on the walls, though."

Sean had laughed at that. Oh man, had he laughed, and it wasn't even _that_ funny. Maybe he just needed to laugh, because he hadn't done that for what felt like ages. He hadn't laughed like that since… well, since _before_.

Sabrina had apparently felt the need to laugh as well, because she had joined his little fit. It had felt good. They had needed to break the tension for a moment, and it had definitely made them feel a lot better. It wasn't much, but it was something. Like a tiny Band-Aid on the sores of their souls.

Not long after they had found a bed, and had lied down for a bit. The bed wasn't that bad to lie in, and it was fairly clean compared to the rest of the apartment, but they had kept their clothes on. Sabrina had fallen asleep soon after. It had been a rough night for both of them, but Sean couldn't fall asleep himself. It wasn't because he wasn't tired, because he was. His entire body ached from running and fighting, and his mind was tired from constantly thinking of ways to escaping the countless encounters he had had with the nightmarish creatures. Surviving was a mind job.

But it was exactly because of his mind that he couldn't sleep. Even though he felt exhausted, his mind couldn't stop thinking. He had so many questions that needed answering, and they were all filling the insides of his skull, calling out. _What is this "virus"? Where did it come from? Is it only happening here in Raccoon City? How many people have been lost to the virus? Apparently zombies aren't the only product of it. Why are some of them stronger and faster? Could it be engineered as Sabrina had said? If so, by who? And why?_

"Shut up," Sean whispered.

_How does the virus spread? Does it only spread through bites? Or is it airborne? Are my friends infected too? Am I infected at all? Why am I not dead? What is happening to me? Am I going to die? Am I going to turn into a zombie? Will I have the guts to kill myself before I turn? Am I a coward? Am I gonna let myself kill my friends? Can I save them? Will they save _me_? Is there a cure?_

"Stop."

_Are Mike and Pat okay at the radio station? Can me and Sabrina even get back inside? And if we do, what then? How do we get out of the city? Is someone coming to get us out? Is the government even doing anything about the outbreak? Why haven't we seen any soldiers? What's gonna happen to the city? How is my father involved in all of this? How does he know so much? Does it have something to do with Umbrella Inc.? How are they connected to all of this? Are they behind it?_

Sean opened his eyes. His last thought echoing in his head.

The zombies, the monsters he had seen… it all reeked of biological experiments. These things weren't an accident. They were designed and created by human beings.

That helicopter he saw flying over the movie theater… It was owned by Umbrella. They were probably out scouting how their pest and their pets were working. They sure as hell weren't there to rescue people, because then they would surely have picked up the signal from the radio station and then he wouldn't be sitting in a rundown bed in a crappy apartment with a refrigerator blocking the door to keep the friggin undead from getting in. They caused all of this and now they were out to cover their tracks and probably collecting data on whether their zombie disease was worth their money or not.

But how was all that possible? How the hell could a corporation like Umbrella get away with all of this?

_Sure they can_, Sean then thought. _They practically own the entire city._

Umbrella was pretty much the only reason why Raccoon City was running. Almost 50 of the city's jobs were at Umbrella Inc. The city would simply die if it wasn't for Umbrella. That was how deep they were. And that was how they had access to everything. Sean could just imagine how Umbrella could've been building all kinds of secret labs in the city or even under it. No one would ask questions, because no one wanted to bite the hand that fed them.

God, how could they all had been so blind? How could _he_?

Someone would've known what was going on, but why hadn't they been doing something about it? Had they gotten a piece of the pie, or had they ended up on the front page of Raccoon Times with the headlines reading "Unidentified body found in Circular River"? Sean thought about how many people they could've silenced. He didn't even dare to imagine how many, because he knew that it was possible. That was what scared him; the reality of his theories.

Umbrella was worth billions. They were very powerful, and they had even more power in Raccoon City. They weren't going to let a couple of nosy reporters get away with any incriminating evidence of their shady operations.

Sean couldn't help thinking that maybe Umbrella had had someone in the police department too. All the attacks that had happened out in the Raccoon forest had definitely been the effects of the virus. The so-called "cannibal murders".

Why hadn't the Chief of Police acted sooner? Nothing had been done to prevent all of this from happening. And when it was too late to do anything they just declared martial law and sealed off the city completely, leaving the citizens to their death. They had doomed the entire city.

Sean felt a sudden urge of rage going through him and he got up from the bed.

He felt anger and frustration. He was mad at himself for not seeing this sooner and for not doing anything about it, and he felt hate towards the people responsible. He didn't know how they could get themselves to do such a thing, or how the people they probably had bribed could sleep at night. People like Chief Brian Irons and the mayor of the city Michael Warren. Sean had an idea that they were probably both on Umbrella's payroll.

But most of all, Sean was angry at his father. He obviously knew about the whole operation and he hadn't done a thing to stop it. He was with _them_. Sean felt sick at the thought of it. To think that his dad actually worked for these psychos. He felt betrayed, stabbed in the back by his very own father. Yet, there was a voice in the back of his head saying that he should at least give him a chance to explain himself.

Sabrina had explained how his dad had called his phone while she was heading for the hospital. He had told her that he would call back in awhile. Problem was that it had been many hours since she had received the call, and Sean was beginning to get a bit worried.

He remembered what he had said to him the last time they had talked over the phone, which seemed like ages ago. "They might be on to me" he had said to him before hanging up. _They_? Could it mean that his father was indeed working against Umbrella's orders? Sean didn't dare to think about what they would do to him if they found out he was making unauthorized calls. _Maybe they've caught him already…_ He gulped at the thought.

Sean pulled his cellphone out of his pants' front pocket and looked at the display. He wanted to call him. He needed answers and he needed them now, but he knew that it could get his father in serious trouble if he did.

Yet he started pushing the buttons, finding his fathers cellphone number in his list. His finger stopped on top of the dial button. Did he really want to risk his father's life to get answers to the billions of questions he had?

All of a sudden the problem solved itself. The phone started ringing and Sean jumped, dropping the phone to the floor.

"Jesus…" he murmured and picked up the phone as fast as he could, his heart still throbbing in his throat.

The number on the display wasn't one the phone had in its list and Sean didn't recognize it. He answered the call anyway and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello?" he then said after a moment of silence.

"_Is this Sean Hayter?"_ a male voice asked in a tone that seemed strangely calm, but friendly nonetheless. He didn't know why the voice's calmness seemed so weird to him. Maybe it was because feeling calm wasn't normal anymore.

Sean didn't answer, afraid to say anything as if the man in the other end had just accused him of something.

"_Your father told me to call you,"_ the voice said, still with the calm and friendly voice. The man didn't sound overly confident, but more like he was at peace. Sean felt that he could somehow trust this man, but not because of what he had said. It was the way he said it.

Still he wasn't going to give himself up. "Who is this?"

"_My name is not important. Just know that I'm a friend of your father's."_

"I'm sure you are," Sean replied, mockingly, putting some pressure on the guy.

The man let out a quiet chuckle, apparently amused by what he said. _"You can believe whatever you want to believe. I'm just calling to give you some information. That is all."_

"Oh, yeah?" Sean continued to play it safe. "And how do I know that you're not one of _them_?"

"_I guess there's no way to tell, is there?"_ the voice replied. _"But whether you trust me or not is not of importance. I'm going to give you some information and you can choose to do with it as you please."_

Sean was biting on his lip as he hesitated. There was no harm in hearing what the man had to say, was there? "Alright, I'm listening."

"_First off I want to tell you that the reason _I'm_ calling you and not you father is that he has to lay low for some time. He is under surveillance so he can't contact you, nor should you try to contact him."_

The man must have sensed by Sean's silence that he was worried, because he then told him; _"He's alright, no need to be concerned."_

"How do you know my father?" Sean then asked, trying to figure out who this mystery man was.

"_We have common interests your father and I," _he replied, not saying nothing, but not giving Sean much to work with either. Sean guessed that this was how you played the game. Show, but don't tell.

"And what interests would that be?" Sean tried, but not expecting the man to tell him though.

"_He really hasn't told you anything, has he?"_ the man said, slightly surprised.

Sean didn't answer.

"_Guess it is better we keep you in the dark for a little longer. No need to take any unnecessary risks," _he continued, seemingly talking to himself. _"The less you know, the better, I guess."_

Sean had a pretty good idea of what he meant by that: If he was telling the truth, Sean's father was working undercover or something, trying to bring down Umbrella from the inside. If Sean knew too much about this it would bring his father's life in jeopardy. Not to mention his _own_ life.

But still Sean didn't say a word, because he didn't trust this guy enough to give him anything. For all he knew this man could be working for Umbrella and he could be trying to play him into giving up information. Or lead him into a trap.

"_You are a man of few words, Sean,"_ the man said, almost mockingly.

"Could we get to the point?" Sean replied, slightly irritated.

The man chuckled again. _"Like father, like son,"_ he said, still chuckling. _"Ah well, let us proceed. Your father said to tell you that over the past weeks – before the outbreak – he's been adding something to your insulin shots; a vaccine."_

"A vaccine?" Sean asked, puzzled. "You mean like a cure for this virus?"

"_No, not exactly a cure,"_ the man replied, patiently. _"A vaccine is actually a mild version of the virus which is injected into your body. This allows your body to somewhat learn how to deal with the virus, making you resistant to it, making you immune."_

Sean went silent for awhile, trying to piece the puzzle together. _Why would my dad inject me with a vaccine weeks before the outbreak?_

"Wait, are you telling me my father _knew_ that the outbreak was coming?"

"_No, that wasn't how it went,"_ he quickly answered. _"Your father knew of the attacks in the Arklay Forest, yes. But what he didn't know was that the entire city would become infected. No one could have predicted the outbreak."_

"So you're saying that this is all an accident?!" Sean then asked, frustrated about what he was told.

"_Yes, a terrible mistake not even Umbrella could've seen coming. You see, the attacks in the Arklay's were indeed a product of the virus, but they didn't lead to the infection of the entire city. No, this was caused by another outbreak _within_ the city."_

Sean bit down hard on his lower lip. _Why am I not surprised by this?_ he thought.

"_One of Umbrella's underground labs had an accident and the virus somehow spread throughout the sewers,"_ he continued. _"We have yet to uncover how exactly this happened, but we know that it all happened about a week ago."_

"Jesus," Sean muttered to himself, thinking about all the people who had died because of this said "accident" he was talking about.

"Why didn't my father warn me about all this before?" Sean then asked, curious to how his father could've been so cold to just leave him.

"_Because your father has been under surveillance for a long time. Even back then,"_ the man explained. _"If he decided to send you out of town for awhile_ they_ would've known that he knew more than he was supposed to. So he did what he could to make sure that you wouldn't get infected with the virus if it ever came as far as that."_

Sean was speechless for some time again. He understood that his father really _had_ been doing his best to keep him alive. Only the vaccine he had been given wasn't working. Sean _was_ infected.

"All of this isn't making any sense…" Sean then said, half talking to the mystery man in the other end and half talking to himself. "The vaccine, I mean."

"_What isn't making any sense?"_ the man asked, Sean sensing a slight uneasiness in his otherwise calm voice.

"If I'm immune to the virus, then I shouldn't be having a reaction to the bite I got days ago, right?" Sean explained. "Then why are all these… these _things_ happening to me?!"

"_Reaction?"_ the man said, sounding genuinely surprised. _"But that would mean that the vaccine didn't work…"_

Sean could hear the man fiddling around with papers and other noises he couldn't quite make out what was. Then he heard the clicking of a computer's keyboard being typed on.

"_How long has it been since you were bitten?"_ he then asked as the typing stopped.

Sean thought about it for awhile, trying to remember exactly what day it was. It wasn't easy since it had been hard to keep track of time over the past days. He felt like it had been ages ago they had left his house.

"I don't know… maybe 2 or 3 days ago," Sean said.

More typing could be heard. _"And you've been having the symptoms?"_

"Itching, nausea and fever," Sean said. "But only when my blood sugar is too low."

"_Hmm, you should by all means be dead by now,"_ the man said (a bit coldly, Sean thought), lowering his voice as if he was talking to himself again. _"No one has ever lasted that long after exposure to the virus. At least not what I know of."_

"So am I going to be fine?" Sean asked, hoping for some good news.

"_I can't tell you for sure,"_ the man said, sighing. _"Your body seems to be fighting it off for now, but you might have a relapse at some point. Or maybe not. I can't say for certain…"_

Sean sighed, feeling the hope that had built up inside him seep out again. He had hoped for some answers about his condition, but as some had been answered new questions had been raised. And another thing kept bugging him; who was this guy and could he even trust him? _Do I have a choice?_

"So there's nothing I can do other than keep taking my insulin shots?" Sean asked.

"_I'm afraid not,"_ the man replied, some of the previous coldness of his tone had disappeared. _"The only other way is to clear your whole system with an antidote."_

"An antidote?"

"_I probably shouldn't have mentioned that…" _he told Sean. _"It's too dangerous to go there."_

"Go where?" Sean insisted on getting it out of him. "Tell me!"

"_It's back from where you just came… the hospital."_

Sean felt a wet chill in the back of his neck as if Death himself had just put his cold and clammy hand on him. The hospital had been a nightmare worse than anyone he had ever had. There had been so many things wrong about that place; no dead bodies or undead ones. Those he could handle. But the leeches and that abomination he had dubbed the Leech Man… They were something he couldn't defeat. The leeches could be anywhere at any time, and the Leech Man seemed to be invulnerable. Whenever Sabrina had fired the 9mm at him, the leeches surrounding his body had just taken the bullets, the leeches being hit falling off. But there were hundreds of them covering the body. They couldn't kill all of them.

His decision was clear. They weren't going back there.

"The hospital is the only place I can find an antidote?" he then asked, pretty sure he already knew what the answer was going to be.

"_Yes, it's the only way for you to get access to one,"_ the man said. _"Your father told me not to tell you about the antidote. He doesn't want you to get hurt."_

"So why did _you_ tell me?" Sean asked, curious.

"_Because I think you deserve the chance to make the decision yourself."_

Sean wanted to say "thank you", but he didn't want to give him the impression that he trusted him. He felt like this was somewhat as a game of poker; never let the opponent know how good a hand you have. Or how bad.

"_I'm not saying that you should go after the antidote, though,"_ the man said. _"Actually, I strongly advice you to stay away from the hospital."_

Puzzled, Sean hesitated. _How does he know about the dangers at the hospital?_ He hadn't said a word to him about the abomination that was the Leech Man. Could he be talking about something else?

"How come?" Sean then asked.

"_You tell me," _the man said._ "All I know is that there's a lab underneath the hospital and that the sewers, which also run beneath it, are crawling with infected animals. I can only begin to imagine what's in there."_

"Let's just say that we saw enough in there not to consider going back," Sean decided to say.

"_Yes, that's what I thought,"_ he agreed. _"Anyway, I just thought I should let you know."_

"Alright, but we're not going back," Sean said. _Not ever._

"_Your call," _the man said. _"I'm going to hang up now. I've told you all I can tell you."_

_All you _can _tell me,_ Sean thought, shaking his head.

"_I'll let your father know you're alright," _the man told him. _"And Sean…"_

"Yeah?"

"_Just know that your father and I are working on a way to get you out of there."_

The man hung up before Sean could say anything.

In spite his mistrust in the guy, he felt relieved. Someone finally did something to help and Sean felt some of the weight he had been carrying around being lifted from his shoulders. During the past days his friends had almost pointed him leader of the group and they had looked to him for answers most of the time. He had had to make split-second decisions and he had had to take the responsibility for everything, even if things went wrong when he made a bad decision. Sean hadn't asked for this burden, but it had been given to him anyway. He was glad that finally someone would come and take over, and he could then sit back and just follow the flow.

But all that was assuming the mystery man had been telling the truth. Every bone in his body told him that there was something fishy about the man. First off he hadn't told him his name. How could he trust him without even knowing his name? Other than that Sean couldn't really put a finger on it. He just knew that there was something shady about the guy. The way he talked, what he had said and how he had said it.

But why should he be lying? He hadn't told him anything that could lead him into a trap or hurt him in any way at all. Most of the things he had told him were something he could choose to believe or not. It didn't really matter as he had said. It was simply information meant to put his mind at ease. Then again the trap could be to make him stay put until a team of something would come to kill him. But why kill him? Sean didn't know anything that could bring the company down. Well, he _did_, but he didn't have anything to back it up. There was no reason for Umbrella to put so much time and effort into killing a nobody as him.

And then there was the matter of the antidote. The man hadn't even made an effort to convince him into going back to the hospital to get it. In fact he had advised him to stay the hell away from it.

The only way Sean could imagine there would be problems would be around the time the man would call back and say where to go, when they would come and rescue him and his friends. There he could be trying to set him up. So this call he had just received would have to be the first of a number of calls where the man would try and win his trust.

But again, why bother? Did Sean have something they wanted? Or was it something else?

Sean threw his cellphone on the bed in frustration and sat down. He buried his face in his hands and sighed deeply.

"Are you okay?" Sabrina suddenly asked from behind him. Her voice was coarse and low, and Sean hardly heard what she said.

"Hey, you're up," Sean said, turning around smiling at her. His smile must've seemed forced to Sabrina, because she didn't smile back. Her eyes were studying him hard and Sean looked away.

"What's wrong, Sean," she asked, putting a hand on his arm. "Who was that? And don't tell me it was your father, because I heard enough of it to tell that it wasn't."

Sean looked down at her hand that was resting on his bare arm. Her touch felt warm and comforting, the feeling spreading throughout his body, warming even his cold feet. Only she made him feel that way. No one had ever touched him like her. He looked up at her eyes and gave her a weak smile, this time genuine enough for her to smile back.

"Wrong number?" Sean joked.

She gave him a cold stare, her eyes drilling into his.

"I'm serious, Sean. Who was it?" she said, raising her voice this time.

Sean looked away again, swallowing hard as he did.

"Well, I didn't get his name," he said and cleared his throat. "But… uhm, he told me my father asked him to call me."

He told her everything the man had said over the phone bit by bit. Sean told her every word he had said, not leaving anything out. He didn't want to hold any of it back from her.

Sean had started off by telling her about Umbrella and how they were involved in the whole incident. She was shocked, but not as shocked as he had expected her to be. It seemed more like a suspicion that had been confirmed, which was exactly how he had felt about it. Her reaction then turned from shock to anger, and after some yelling and cursing she then sat down and started sobbing. It took Sean some good time to get her to calm down. It wasn't easy, but he needed her to get herself together. He had more to tell.

When she was okay again he continued explaining what the man had said, this time telling her all about his father's involvement. She was appalled by some of the things Sean told her, but she came to understand why his father had done things as he had. She had asked Sean how he felt about his father now that he knew this, but he couldn't really give her a straight answer. Sean felt anger and hatred towards him for not letting him in on anything, but he still loved him very much.

When Sean came to the part about the antidote he had noticed a certain glow in Sabrina's eyes. It had been the glow of hope. But when he had told her that they had to go back to the hospital to get it, that comforting glow had faded. It seemed she didn't like the idea of going back there either.

Sabrina sat there in the bed, thinking it all over again. Sean could guess that it was the idea of an antidote that was going around in her head. He knew because it was all _he_ could think about. It appeared that she was in fact considering going back.

Sean was just about to ask her about it when she cut him off.

"Can we trust this guy?" she asked, looking up at him.

"I don't know…" Sean said, hesitating a bit. "But I don't feel like putting all my money on him, that's for sure."

"Me neither, but do we have much choice?" she said, her question clearly suggesting her decision.

"Of course we do!" Sean said, standing up. "We're not going back there. Period."

Sabrina got up as well.

"Oh, so _I _don't get a say in this?!" she said, raising her voice.

Sean blushed slightly and looked away.

"I didn't mean it like that," he muttered.

Sabrina walked up to him and put a soothing hand on his arm the way she always did.

"Look, I know it's not because you're worried about yourself, Sean," she said to him, her voice as soothing as her hand. "You don't want me to get hurt, I get that. And that's what I love about you. You're very caring and protective. Probably the most selfless guy I've ever met, but you've got to understand that it's also my decision to make."

"I know… I know," Sean sighed. "I just don't want you to get hurt trying to find that antidote."

"Well, as long as we're together you can make sure that doesn't happen," Sabrina said, smiling warmly at him.

Sean smiled back at her, but he still wasn't keen on going into the hospital again. Especially not when they didn't have a clue to where the antidote was kept. The caller _did_ say the Umbrella lab was located below the hospital though. But they still had no idea of how to access it or what an antidote looked like in the first place. In Sean's eyes there were more cons than pros.

"I don't think it's worth the risk, Sabrina," Sean sighed. "I think we should just return to the radio station and see how it goes from there."

"And risk losing you?!" Sabrina said, raising her voice once again. "As the guy said you could have a relapse, and if that happens you could die, Sean."

"Yeah, I know that and I'm ready to accept it," Sean cut her off, almost raising his voice to a shout. "But if we go to the hospital we will _both_ die!"

Sabrina stepped back a few steps, looking away and Sean wondered if he had gone too far. He was angry with her, because _she_ just wouldn't accept that he was going to die. But then again, would he give up if it was her that was infected? Never in a million years. He would keep going no matter what was before him, even if it meant the end of his life.

"Listen," Sabrina said, her voice calmer now. "I'm going to the hospital, and I'm gonna find that antidote… with or without you."

She turned away and found her backpack. She grabbed the Beretta and then started walking towards the door they had blocked with a refrigerator. As she walked up to him, she pulled the slide back on the gun and chambered a bullet.

"And don't think you can keep me from going there, Sean," she told him, confidently and then continued past him.

Sean knew that she was right. He couldn't do anything to keep her from going, not when she had made up her mind. She was stubborn as hell. That much he knew about her. But he didn't want to stop her either. No matter how crazy and unreasonable it seemed, he had to respect her choice. After all it was _her_ life, not his. So he understood; she didn't want to lose him and he didn't want to lose her. He just had to be there to make sure that it wouldn't come to that.

Sean took his own backpack and started after her.

"Sabrina, wait up!"


	25. Collision Course

What you risk reveals what you value.

**Jeanette Winterson**

**Chapter 25**

_Collision Course_

"Clear that table!"

"Help me with him."

"Oh my God… all that blood…"

"Move away!"

"Here, grab his leg."

_Footsteps… moving up and down… floating on air… am I flying? _

_Faces… fearful faces… gasping… screaming… crying…_

"He's bleeding badly… it's pouring out of him for chrissake!"

"What are we gonna do?!"

"Make room for God's sake!"

"Put him down. Gently…"

_Lying on hard surface… not floating… not flying…_

_Cold… so cold… and wet… cold and wet…_

"Pat, hang in there…" a familiar voice whispered.

A hand grabbed his arm. It was warm, and it squeezed him gently.

He tried to speak, but only a soft squeak seemed to escape his throat.

Patrick looked up at the source of the familiar voice, but couldn't make out who it was. His vision was blurry and distorted as if he was looking through a glass of water.

He reached out to the man and tried to say something again, but the person just grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

"It's okay…" the voice said, calmly.

More people were around him, looking at him, but he didn't notice who they were either. They whispered and stared at him, like he was some kind of circus freak. For some reason he was the center of attention right now, but he couldn't figure out why.

He turned his head back to the man with the familiar voice. The face was still a blur, but he had the feeling that it was someone close to him. The voice made him feel safe somehow, but he still couldn't place who the voice belonged to.

The man leaned closer to him, and the face became clearer and clearer. It was a middle-aged man with short dark hair with a few hints of gray in it, and his eyes were warm and smiling through the glasses he wore.

"Dad?" Pat spoke, his voice miraculously returning as he recognized the man.

"Everything is going to be alright, Patty," his father ensured him, and smiled warmly at him. "I promise."

Pat wanted to sit up, but he couldn't. He couldn't move much at all, only enough to squeeze his father's hand back. And he managed to return a vague smile as well.

Suddenly he felt a warm hand on his forehead, and he turned his head to see who it was.

"Mom?" he said, even more surprised than before.

Both his parents had died in a tragic traffic accident 5 years ago and yet they were standing beside him, among all the other people. The two of them were the only one's he could make out who was, and the only two he could hear now, everything else was a blur of whispers and distorted faces.

"We're here now, Patty," his mother said, with a serene voice. Her smile melting his heart as it had always done when she had been alive. She stroked his hair and patted his arm. "Everything is going to be okay…"

Pat felt a warm teardrop run down his cheek. He had never felt happier in his entire life.

But suddenly his parents started backing away, waving him goodbye as they slowly disappeared into the crowd of anonymous faces.

"Wait…" he tried to say, but his voice was gone again.

"We love you, Patty," they whispered just before they vanished completely in the blur.

He bit down on his lip and let out a painful sigh. Something painful in his stomach, the pain jolting through his body.

Pat snapped back to reality and sat up, screaming in pain. "Aaaaaarrghh!"

xxxxxxxxxxx

One watched as the helicopter took off from the roof of the hospital, where he and his team had just been dropped off. The roar of the blades fading into the distance as it headed for its next mission.

The sun was setting and under normal circumstances it would've looked beautiful, but the light that was left lit up the grim reality that was Raccoon City. One turned away, realizing he looked like a sentimental fool standing there gawking at the sun. It wasn't a habit of his, but yet he had caught himself in a moment of serenity.

"Sir?" Three asked, his young voice now deeper because of the gasmask.

One cleared his throat and looked at them all.

"Let's move out," he then said, and started for the stairway door, leading the way for the others.

All four gathered around the door. Two and Four covering the roof as One and Three went for the door. One grabbed the handle and signaled to Three to be ready to take out anything that would be on the other side.

He pulled the handle down swiftly and pushed at the door. It didn't budge. It was locked.

"Want me to shoot out the lock, sir?" Four said over his shoulder, and started pulling out his short-barreled shotgun. It was one they had brought in case they needed to "unlock" a door quickly. Over the past days it had proved useful when the carriers had had them cornered in back alleys and they hadn't had the time to pick the locks on the doors accessible. One or two shots to the lock and the door would be open and they would be free to move again.

That was the only real threat about the carriers: their mass. If they were many in tight spaces like a narrow street or a hallway, they were impassable. There was no way to cut through them unless their numbers were low.

"No, I'll pick the lock," One said, and pulled out his kit. "We have plenty of time."

The lock was a regular cylinder lock with a pin tumbler mechanism, one that could easily be picked with a snap gun and a torsion wrench. He picked those tools out from the kit and started working on the lock. The torsion wrench went in first at the bottom of the lock and the snap gun's pick over the wrench. One then pulled the trigger and the second the pick snapped up and hit the pins of the lock, he turned the cylinder with the torsion wrench. The door was unlocked with a soft click.

"Smooth, sir," Four said, complimenting One's lock picking skills. They all knew how to pick a lock, but they also knew that unlocking a cylinder lock in the first try was a rarity. One smirked behind his mask.

He wrapped the tools back into the cloth he kept them in and put them in one of his many pockets on his combat vest. Now One and Three assumed the same positions as before and One pushed the door open, swiftly. Three pointed his P90 sub-machinegun inside the staircase and switched on the flashlight that was mounted on the side of it. The light exposed anything that might have been in the dark staircase, but it was empty of carriers or other creatures.

"Clear," he stated, and walked in.

One tapped Four on the back and went in, and Four did the same with Two who then entered the staircase as the last. He closed the door behind them and followed the rest of the team down the stairs. Power was out in the hospital apparently, so they all switched on their flashlights before moving on.

They reached the 3rd floor and One decided that they should start their search there. It was a fairly large hospital, so the subject could be anywhere. He didn't like the idea of splitting up, but if they were to have any hope of finishing the mission in time, it was probably a good idea to do so. They only had till midnight before extraction. 5 hours to find the subject, take a sample of his blood and dispose of him. Plenty of time most people would agree, but One had learned through experience that nothing ever goes completely as planned. He had to make room for error whenever possible. Especially under unpredictable circumstances as there were on this very mission. His team wasn't exactly trained for handling the creatures Umbrella had created, but it sure wasn't the first time they dealt with them. Experience was what counted on this mission, and his team had plenty of that.

The only other way One and his team could prepare for the encounters, was studying the files Umbrella had on their creations. Or "products" as the management liked to call them. They all had a specific product code, but somewhere along the way they had also been given nicknames to make it easier to tell the difference, One supposed. Every name described the creatures very well. The Licker: with its long tongue capable of piercing a man's torso. The Chimera: an abomination created by splicing human with fly. The Hunter: once it has your scent, it won't stop until you're dead. The Tyrant: tall, strong, mean and extremely volatile. And the list went on and on. One hadn't even come across half of the lists creatures before and there were still some creatures Umbrella hadn't accounted for. Unpredicted mutations could be found all over the city. That was the result of an unstable virus spread out into the population. Who knew what abominations could be waiting out there? Or even in this very hospital?

It didn't matter. Whatever creatures could be hiding out there could all die. Three shots between the eyes can kill anything. And he had faith in his men. He knew what they were capable of.

"Let's split up," One decided. "Three goes with me. Two and Four; you take the second floor."

Two nodded at Four and started down the stairs.

"Aw, man," Four muttered silently as he went down after him. "Why's it always me that gets stuck with him? He's always so silent. It creeps me out."

Sometimes One regretted ever letting his team speak freely. Maybe he should make an exception with Four. He talked too much, but he was a good soldier. No argument there.

Three waited for him at the door, ready to enter the hallway on the other side as soon as One would give the order. He took his position beside Three and then nodded at him. The door flew open and they both went inside, sweeping left and right. A single carrier was standing across the hallway. One quickly aimed at its head and pulled the trigger.

_Snapsnapsnap!_

Three rounds went straight into the skull of the used-to-be nurse and she collapsed onto the floor.

"_Trouble?"_ Four asked over the radio a split second later.

"Negative. Stray carrier," One responded.

They were keeping tabs on each other just to make sure everything was alright. Maybe it was a little tedious to report over the radio everytime you ran into a carrier, but it was necessary when they were apart like now. If there was trouble then they should regroup instantly. They weren't going to take any chances.

They continued down the hallway as the echo of the three shots was still hanging in the air along with the smell of hot metal. He had fired in a three-round burst, because his previous experiences with carriers had proved that one shot to the head wasn't always enough. Even though the bullet enters the brain, it doesn't always mean that the target is dead. There's a certain area of the brain that needs to be hit. It would probably put a normal human being out of function, but these carriers could survive even with severe head trauma. He had seen carriers get up again after getting rounds straight through the forehead. That's why he fired three rounds, and also why they used hollow points. Three of that kind to the head and there wasn't much left of it.

They checked the first two rooms they came across, but found them empty. Nothing but surgical equipment and electronic devices. The hospital seemed oddly quiet and empty. Apart from the single carrier they had met out in the hallway, they hadn't found anything. Not even any dead bodies. Two and Four hadn't reported any findings either.

"Where's everybody at?" Three then asked, apparently speculating about the same thing.

"Beats me," One replied, just as puzzled by it.

"Maybe there was a sale at the Gap downtown," Three joked.

One ignored it.

"Anyway, I would've figured the place would be swarming with carriers," Three said, taking it more seriously. "The uptown hospital was full of them."

He made a good point, One thought. Lots of people would've died here in the early stages of the outbreak, so the hospital should be crawling with carriers. Instead it was empty as if they had all just vanished. There wasn't any blood to be found anywhere either. Apart from the trashed furniture and equipment, the place was spotless. Someone had been cleaning up. _Or something…_

One pressed the transmit button on his radio. "Two, Four. Any luck yet?"

"_Negative,"_ Two answered in his eastern-European accent.

"Carriers?"

"_None," _Four took over. _"It's odd… there's no bodies either."_

"Same here," One told him.

"_What do you think it means?"_

One didn't know what could've done it, but something had, so they had to be careful.

"I don't know, but keep your guard up and report anything out of the ordinary. Something isn't right about this."

"_Affirmative."_

One and Three left the room they were in and moved further down the hallway, even more aware of the paralyzing silence than before. At the end of the hallway, past two more rooms, there was a shutter blocking their access to the rest of the hospital. It was a grid-type shutter, so the light from the other side shone through it. Apparently the power was only out in half of the hospital.

"This is gonna slow us down," Three said, silently.

"We'll find a way around it," One assured him. "If not, Two can cut his way through with the bolt cutter."

"Yeah, chances are that the shutters are down on every floor," Three stated. "Makes you wonder if the subject is on our half or the other, huh?"

"It doesn't matter, because there's no way to tell," One said, looking at his teammate. "We'll have to search this half anyway."

"Yes, sir."

One pointed to the next door and Three went first in. Their flashlights revealed that the room was for patient recovery. Two hospital beds were placed parallel to each other on one side of the room; only a portable screen was in between them. A few dark stains were on it; blood.

They moved further into the room, but stopped when Three stepped on some glass. It made a loud crunching sound under his boot when he shifted his weight on top of it. One shone his flashlight on it to see, but Three kept his up. A few feet to the left a monitor had fallen to the floor and shattered its screen.

Suddenly they heard something move behind them. They both pivoted faster than lightning towards the sound, their cones of light shifting around, seeking out the source. But there was nothing there.

Again a shuffling sound, this time they could hear it coming from the ceiling. They searched the white plaster over their heads and found a ventilation shaft over the door.

One signaled Three to stay put, and he slowly started moving forward, keeping his P90 aimed at the shaft. He kept his breathing to a minimum, listening very carefully. His boots were moving silently over the floor as well. Not a sound escaped him.

One stopped a few feet away from the shaft and looked up into it at an angle. He then made a swift step so he was staring straight up into it. A second passed as he just stared up at the empty shaft, and then he lowered his weapon.

"_Sir?"_ Four suddenly called over the radio, and Three jumped a little. One did not.

"Yes?"

"_We've found something,"_ Four explained. _"The subject is a diabetic, right? There are insulin bottles just lying around here on the floor, and what looks like a used syringe."_

"We'll be right there," One replied and nodded at Three.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sean and Sabrina walked down the slope at the back entrance of the hospital. The same entrance they had both entered through earlier. The sun had gone down a few minutes ago, and the twilight had set in. The sky had taken on a grey-purplish color and the stars were visible along with the moon. Even with all the bad things happening in the city, Sean couldn't help but smile a little at the beauty of it. It was breathtaking.

"So, this mystery guy… he didn't by any chance say anything about where in the hospital the antidote is?" Sabrina said, not at all noticing Sean staring up at the sky.

Sean turned his attention to her, thinking.

"No… I guess he didn't know," he said, his smile from before fading.

"That's great," she said sarcastically. "We gotta search the entire hospital while our friend Mr. Leech is stalking us throughout the whole thing… and we only have _one_ gun."

Sean grabbed her arm and stopped her. She turned around to face him.

"Hey," he spoke softly. "I didn't want to come here."

"I know, but we have to go in there," Sabrina told him firmly. "It's the only way."

"No, it's not," he said to her, shaking his head. "It's not worth the risk, Sabrina."

"How can you say that?!" Sabrina yelled at him, shaking his hand off her. "If you don't get that antidote you're going to die, Sean!"

He looked away from her, chewing on his lip.

"I feel fine," he then said, shrugging. "I'm fine…"

"No, you're _not _fine!" Sabrina insisted, her voice breaking. "I've happened to notice that you've been taking way more insulin shots than usual. Your consumption is sky-high, Sean. And it's escalading."

Sean scoffed and looked down.

"You've been throwing up, having cold sweat, itchiness. You're sick, Sean," she continued, her eyes starting to look teary. "And it's only gonna get worse until you… until you die…"

She slowly started sobbing and Sean wrapped himself around her. She was right and he knew it. He _wasn't _fine, and it scared him more than anything. Things hadn't been fine inside of him since he had been bitten, but part of him just wouldn't accept it. He _couldn't_ accept it.

"You don't get to play the hero this time," she whispered to him, forcing a smile. "We're gonna find the antidote… I know it."

He looked her straight in the eyes as she said it. Her eyes red and wet from tears, but they were glowing with determination. She wasn't lying, she really _did_ believe.

"Alright," he said, kissing her forehead. "But I'm taking the gun."

She looked down at the 9 mm, feeling the cold steel between her fingers. Then she handed it over to him. Sean accepted it with a smile and then pulled out the magazine, checking if it was fully loaded. Next he pulled back the slide just enough to see if there was a round in the chamber. Everything was in order.

"What? Don't you trust me with your gun?" she said, crossing her arms.

Sean laughed. "I'm just checking. I guess it's just sort of a habit, you know?"

She scoffed at him, and shook her head. "Men…"

Sean just shrugged and smiled at her. Just as he was about to head towards the ambulance entrance, Sabrina grabbed his arm lightly.

"Wait a second, Sean," she said and he then understood. He leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips, but she grabbed him around his neck and made him kiss her harder. It was long and passionate, one that almost seemed like a goodbye-kiss. A last kiss…

They separated and just stood there for a minute, looking deeply into eachothers eyes. Everything around them was gone. Right in those seconds they were somewhere else, somewhere peaceful, warm and safe.

"Wow…" Sean whispered to her, "What was that for?"

Sabrina closed her eyes. "That was because… I love you."

Sean felt a soft warmness fill up inside him hearing those three words. He wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her tightly.

"I love you too, Sabrina."

_Beepbeep! Beepbeep!_

They both flinched, startled by the sound of Sean's cellphone receiving a text message.

"God…" Sabrina whispered, and backed away from him so he could get the phone out of his pocket. Sean let out a nervous laugh and pulled it out, wondering who could be sending him a message. The number on the display wasn't in his phonebook, but it looked an awful lot like the one the Mystery Man had called him from before.

"Who's it from?" Sabrina asked, frowning.

"It's from our friend, Mr. X," Sean said, reading the message. "It says: Three three two seven, patient room, third floor."

"Is that some kind of code?" she asked. "To a door or a safe maybe?"

"Maybe," Sean said. "It sure would seem like a way to keep something as important as an antidote hidden."

Sabrina nodded. "Third floor, huh? That narrows it down."

"Yeah… Best get moving then, right?" he said.

"Yeah, let's go," she agreed.

They went in, but just before they got under the building Sean gave the sky one last glance. He wondered if anyone was watching them, but most of all _who_ was watching them.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"So," Four said, looking down at One. "What do you think?"

One was kneeling down on floor in the Operating Room of the 2nd floor. He was holding the syringe that Two and Four had found among the insulin bottles.

"He was definitely here," he said, looking around the room, pointing the flashlight mounted P90 around to see. "Which means he found what he was looking for and that he's probably left again."

One dropped the syringe and got up again.

"Where to then?" Four asked.

"Good question," One said, thinking. "I guess our next move would be to contact HQ and tell them about our discoveries, and find out if they have any new leads on the subject's whereabouts. Their intel on this lead is over 10 hours old, so they weren't really counting on him being here. But he can't have gotten far."

"We'll continue on foot?"

"Yes, it will be easier to track the subject that way."

Suddenly Three came barging through the double doors out from the hallway. He looked straight to One.

"Sir? I think you should come take a look at this," he said, pointing out in the hallway.

One looked at Four who shrugged lightly and then went out to see what the fuzz was about. Two was standing further down the hallway, his bulky silhouette barely visible behind the blinding cone of light from his flashlight. He was pointing it at something on the floor.

As One came closer he could see a dark stain, no, more like a dark chunk of something on the hospital floor. It was about the size of a fist. His first guess would've been that it was just a chunk of flesh left behind by the carriers, leftovers from a meal. But then he thought about how spotless the rest of the hospital had been. Even with all that was going on in the city, a chunk of flesh in a clean hospital seemed out of place.

"What the hell is it?" Four asked from behind him, when they approached Two.

"It's not like anything I've ever seen before," Three said crouching down next to it along with One. "And that's saying something."

One pulled out his knife and used it to examine the black wad closer. It was wet with slime, a pool of it formed around it. The slime was also mixed with something red; blood presumably. He got his knife under the thing and flipped it over on its other side.

"Wow," Four said from over his shoulder. He was pointing his light so One could see. "Is that teeth?"

"Looks like it," Three said. "What do you think, sir?"

One sighed, still looking at the thing on the floor. "It's a leech."

"A leech?" Four asked. "Like the kind that suck your blood?"

"Yes, that's what leeches do, Four," Three said, rolling his eyes behind his mask.

"It's been infected with the T-virus as you can tell by the size of it," One explained, ignoring their comments. "That's usually what the virus does to insects and bugs; increase their size and often their aggressiveness. I'm guessing these came from the sewers below the hospital, so I'll bet we'll see more of these."

"Actually," Three said. "There are two more lying further down the hallway, both as dead as this one."

Three shone his light upon the two others so One could see them.

"They appear to have been shot as well," Three continued. "They're all ripped to pieces as this one."

"That means our subject is armed," One said firmly. "We're gonna have to be careful then."

"Yes, sir," they all said at the same time.

"Also keep your eyes peeled for those leeches," he added. "Three, come over here. We need to contact HQ to hear what our next move is."

Three jogged over to him and pulled out his long-distance radio. He was their designated com-man, since they only had that one radio. Anyone on the team knew how to use it though.

He was just about to hand it over to One when his leader suddenly caught the sight of something behind him. It was a small light at the elevator that had suddenly turned on. It was shaped like an arrow pointing upwards.

"Someone's using the elevator," One said and pulled out his gun.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"Over here, Sean!" Sabrina yelled from across the hallway.

Sean and her had taken the elevator directly to the 3rd floor and had begun their search for the antidote. As the text message had told them to, they had started by looking for the patient room. But there had turned out to be two of them, one opposite to the other. They had split up, although Sean wasn't fond of it since Sabrina would have no way to defend herself. Her rebuttal had been that they were only a hallway apart. So Sean had agreed as long as Sabrina would take the gun, and she had, but not without rolling her eyes at Sean's constant attempts to protect her.

"Comin'!" he yelled back at her, grabbing a steel pipe he had found whilst searching the room for the antidote. He had no idea where it had come from, but it had been lying in one of the beds as if someone had left it there. The dark stains at the end of it confirmed that it had been used for more sinister purposes than plumbing.

Sean ran out into the hallway and across to the second patient room where Sabrina was. She was standing by a wall with what appeared to be a built-in safe.

"Look what I found," she said, pointing at the safe and smiling. "It was hidden behind a painting."

"Wow," Sean chuckled and looked down at the painting which she had dropped below the safe. "Just like in the old spy movies."

"Yeah, what a cliché," she said, chuckling. "You got the code?"

"No, I deleted the message as soon as I had read it," Sean replied stone cold.

Sabrina looked at him with squinted eyes.

"I'm kidding!" he said and smiled nervously. "Jesus, how stupid do you think I am?"

"I'm not gonna answer that," she said, cocking her eyebrows.

"Ha ha," Sean said and smiled. "I'll get you your code."

Sean pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and read the code out loud. "Thirty-three twenty-seven. That's three three two seven."

"Got it," Sabrina said as she pressed the numbers on the keypad.

They heard a click and then a swish from the safe as it unlocked and popped open a few inches. Sabrina pulled the little door open and Sean stepped over to see what was inside. Just as the Mystery Man had told them, there was a vial in there, presumably the antidote.

"Just one?" Sean said, his smile from before fading.

Sabrina took it out for a closer look. It had a label on it with a lot of numbers along with an inscription saying "T-virus Antidote".

"T-virus, huh?" Sabrina said, looking at the label. "So that's what they're calling their little apocalyptic invention."

Sean put a hand on her shoulder, since he could see that she was upset. Finding out the name of the cause of all the pain and death that had happened over the last days made Sean's temper fire off too. He didn't know why, but just reading that label made him want to smash his fists into the wall until all his fingers were broken. To think that this devil's disease had a name, a name given by its proud creators.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Sean whispered to her. "We got what we came here for."

Sabrina wiped her eyes quickly. "Yeah, let's go."

They walked to the elevator, their free arms around each other, but nonetheless ready with their weapons. Sean wondered where the Leech Man had gone. They hadn't heard a single sound or seen anything for that matter since they got to the hospital. It was eerie and unsettling, but then again he was happy that it had all gone smoothly. All that worrying had been for nothing.

Just as he was about to call the elevator they both noticed that the arrow shaped lamp over the elevator doors was lit. Someone was riding the elevator up. Sean and Sabrina let go of each other and stepped back.

"What the hell?" Sean whispered. "What can be using the elevator? It can't be a zombie."

"No, and I don't think the leech thing can either," Sabrina said.

"Survivors?" Sean suggested.

"Maybe."

They could hear the soft hum of the elevator getting closer. It was almost at their floor now.

"Get ready," Sabrina said, raising her gun.

The elevator pinged as it reached the floor and the doors slowly slid apart. Four soldiers dressed in black from top to toe were standing there, their weapons fixed on both of them.

One of them looked directly at Sean and spoke to him through the gasmask he was wearing. "Mr. Hayter, I presume."

**AN: Just wanted to let you know that I won't be updating in a long time from now on. I'm joining the Royal Danish Army, so I won't be able to write on regular week days, only weekends. I will try to write as much as possible in these weekends, but I can't promise you anything.  
But I'm only gonna be in the army for about 4 months, so I guess the "regular" updates will return after that.**


	26. Gone Away

**AN: Holy crap, it sure has been awhile since I last updated!  
For that I am truly sorry. As some of you might now, I went off to join the Royal Danish Army back in February. After 4 months of service to my country (as required), I went back to the civil life again. I got my old job back and I've been working like usual ever since.  
Now for my excuse for not doing any writing for almost 2 months (it seems that I always have an excuse for being lazy :P): Well, I've been busy :  
I've started doing some running to stay in shape, and generally I'm exercising a lot more than before, so naturally that takes some of my time and energy.  
Also... I've started another hobby besides writing; namely drawing! Haven't been doing that for many years, so I decided to start up again. You can check it out at my DeviantArt page, if you feel like it, that is. (There's a link at my profile)**

**Anyway... I'm gonna stop ranting about my personal life and bring to you what you've all been anxiously waiting for the last 6 months or so (yeah right :P).  
Here's the newest installment of Chambered. Enjoy, dammit!!**

No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person.

**Willa Cather**  
_US novelist (1873 - 1947)_

**Chapter 26**

_Gone Away_

With pinched eyes locked on the armed men with gasmasks, Sean tightened his grip around the pipe he was holding up as if he was ready to strike. His mind was racing as his eyes wandered from one soldier to the next.

Ever since the elevator doors had opened and revealed those inside, Sean had been locked in this position. His muscles were tightening in cramps from standing there for so long. He felt like they had been standing there for minutes measuring each other out, but in reality there hadn't passed more than a few seconds.

The man in front had spoken to him from behind his mask. He knew Sean's name for some reason unknown to him. One thing he was sure of, though; these guys weren't from the army or any other government task force, which only led to one option.

"You're from Umbrella, aren't you?" Sean asked, through his gritted teeth.

The man let out a muffled chuckle.

"You're smarter than you look," the man said as he slowly took a step towards Sean.

"What's your business here?" Sabrina then asked with a menacing tone as she cocked the Beretta. It was a bold move, but it paid off since the man stopped moving instantly. She saw right through his game and she was getting tired of playing it.

The man wasn't intending to answer the question apparently. Neither were the other soldiers. It seemed that the man in front was the leader, so naturally the others wouldn't say anything. He spoke for the entire team.

It was obvious these guys were here for Sean. They knew his name and had recognized him, so they had been searching for him. Why they would do that was beyond him, but they weren't going to let him go, that was certain.

_This is bad… really bad_, Sean thought, trying to figure a way out of the corner he and Sabrina had ended up in.

"What do you want with me?" Sean asked the leader, straight forward. He didn't really want to know, because he figured it involved him either being their captive or getting killed. What he really wanted was to stall them, so he could figure out how to get away.

Unfortunately it didn't stick with this guy. He was obviously not born yesterday since he didn't reveal anything to Sean. Also, they were all wearing gasmasks so he couldn't get a read from their facial expressions either. Not even their eyes could he see, since the glass in the masks was only one-way. The masks didn't just protect them from the virus, but they also worked as a way to put the fear in the soldiers' opponents. It gave them an advantage, one that Sean couldn't ignore. It made the situation even more dangerous than it already was.

The only reason they hadn't made a move yet was that Sabrina was pointing a gun at the leaders head. If they shot her, she would kill him. But Sean was getting the feeling that they were gonna make a move soon. They were just waiting for Sabrina to make a mistake.

The leader was only a few feet away from Sabrina, but she had made sure he stayed out of reach. The few steps he had tried to make earlier were clearly his way of testing her. He was trying to get a read on how much control she had over the situation. But Sabrina had him perfectly under control. Sean noticed how she kept her distance, her stance and her eyes that were only focused on the leader. One wrong move and she would pull the trigger, stone cold. He didn't doubt her for a second, he knew her too well for that. She was stubborn as hell, but she was also equipped with an almost infinite amount of patience. If she had to, she could stand there for hours.

Just when Sean thought that the situation couldn't get any worse, an all too familiar sound could be heard from the end of the hallway. From the ventilation shaft, by the patient room they had found the antidote in, a dark clot fell down to the floor with a wet splat. And with each splat he heard, the chill down is back got colder and colder. He could tell Sabrina had noticed it too, yet she didn't take her eyes away from the Umbrella soldiers.

Now there was no way out. They couldn't wait any longer. They had to get out of there now. Soon the Leech Man would crash through the cover of the ventilation shaft and he would come for them. Sean had to come up with something, fast.

He couldn't tell if they had heard the leeches dropping to the floor too, but the way Sean had been glaring down the hallway before, they had to know that something was up.

"He's coming," Sean said.

"Who's coming?" the leader asked, his voice cold, without a hint of surprise. It sounded like he didn't care at all.

"The Leech Man," Sean said, looking at him. "I bet you've seen them, haven't you? The leeches?"

He didn't answer him, but yet that was answer enough. He could tell from his silence that they had seen something.

The elevator pinged and the doors tried to close, but was stopped by the leaders foot. The doors returned to their open position. It had done that several times before during their time of waiting. But Sean had noticed a pattern, one that he could use to his advantage perhaps. He just needed a little good fortune, but sadly Lady Luck hadn't been on his side these past few days.

_Or perhaps she has been…_ Sean wondered, thinking about all the mess he'd been able to crawl out of more or less unscathed.

The doors would try to close every ten seconds, and with the right timing Sean and Sabrina would have a way of escaping. He just hoped Sabrina was thinking the same as him.

Five seconds…

_Just a little more_, Sean begged.

Three seconds…

_Bang!_

The cover for the ventilation shaft fell to the floor and just as it happened Sean threw himself to the side, yelling to Sabrina; "Now!"

She let herself fall to the side as well, out of the soldiers' line of fire and then she started shooting into the elevator. The leader threw himself back into it to avoid getting hit, but by doing that he removed his foot from the doors which were closing the same second he did it. The doors closed completely, and Sean and Sabrina were safe for now.

"Come on!" Sean yelled at her, already on his feet. "We only have a few seconds!"

He ran over to her and pulled her up, but as he did he saw the Leech Man behind her, rising to his feet after falling from the shaft.

"What is it?" Sabrina asked him when she noticed how he froze.

"It's him!" he said and took her hand as he started running.

They headed towards the stairway at the end of the hallway, but just as they reached the door they heard the elevator ping and saw the doors slide open.

The soldiers swarmed out, spreading out in both directions. He didn't see more than that, because he and Sabrina had already gone through the door and were heading down the stairs.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"Sonovabitch!" One yelled as he fell backwards into the elevator. The girl with the nine-millimeter kept firing into the elevator, but stopped when the doors closed.

One had been lucky. The side wall of the elevator was now riddled with holes. If he hadn't quickly fallen back into the elevator, it would've been him who'd ended up as Swiss cheese. But he hadn't been fast enough. The girl had hit him in his right arm, or rather grazed his biceps. It stung like hell, but it was nothing compared to how it could've been.

Furious at himself for being played by a couple of civilians, he quickly got on his feet again and slammed his hand at the control panel.

_How could I have let this happen?!_ He blamed himself. He should've acted sooner, before they had the chance to find an opening. He knew better than to wait for an opportunity to arrive. He should've created an opportunity, he should've acted instantly.

Underestimating his enemy would've been the dumbest thing to do, but yet he had done it. These kids knew their way around combat, he could tell. It was probably the only reason why they had survived this long. That and the fact that Hayter was resistant to the product. He would have to be more careful with them next time. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

"Come on!" He said to his men and they all stormed out the doors the second they sled apart.

They fanned out into the hallway, Two and Three to the left and Four and himself to the right. He just managed to catch a glimpse of Hayter and the girl fleeing through the door to the stairs.

Behind him, Two and Three had opened fire, and One turned to look while Four kept covering the door to the stairway. What he saw matched the description of the creature the kid had talked about before; the Leech Man.

Slow, heavy and simple minded was the traits One labeled it with right away. It didn't seem to be much different from the zombies, except for the fact that even after about 15-20 well-placed shots from his men it still wouldn't go down. The leeches that were covering its body dropped to the ground like rain as they got hit. But everytime there seemed to be an opening more leeches came and covered it. It seemed as if there was no end to them.

It wasn't the first time One and his team had encountered leeches. Several locations in the city housed them: the sewers, the forest and the park. Basically, everywhere there were moist, they had seen them. But this… this was different. These leeches were showing some kind of social behavior. They worked together, moved in packs like they had some sort of shared intelligence. They seemed a lot more intelligent than the others, which hadn't been much more than oversized bloodsuckers. And that wasn't all. They had apparently found a way to utilize a human body to move around with, like it was some kind of puppet. One guessed that they must've found some way to control the basic motor functions of the body, perhaps by digging into the spinal cord in the neck and attaching themselves to the brainstem. How they controlled the nervous system was beyond him, he was only a soldier after all. He'd been taught a lot about the anatomy of humans and other creatures used for experiments so he would have better insight on how to bring them down, but he hadn't exactly studied advanced neurophysiology.

But if there was one thing he knew, then it was that everything could be killed by severely damaging its central nervous system. Five bullets through the skull was almost certainly a winner. The problem was that every bullet his men fired got blocked by the leeches. That was the down side of the hollow-point rounds they used: they didn't have much penetrative power. They would need a rifle to shoot through the thick bodies of the leeches before they could damage the body beyond it.

"This isn't working!" Three yelled back to him. "What the hell do we do?"

The Leech Man continued towards them, not slowing down at all. The mass of leeches just wouldn't thin out.

"Forget it," One said, not seeing a whole lot of options left. "We're gonna back off. Two and Three, you'll cover us as we fall back to the stairs."

Two, who was looking back at One, nodded and then resumed firing position, but as he did the Leech Man lunged its arm at him. It couldn't possibly have reached him from that distance, but somehow it did. Its arm stretched 7 feet and hit him hard in his face. Two fell on his back with a loud thump.

"Shit!" One hissed, and started towards Two. "Three, keep firing!"

Three did as he was commanded and kept firing, this time more rapidly than before. One quickly grabbed Two's combat vest by the grip in the neck of it and started dragging him along the tiled floor. His hulking body was heavy as hell, but One was a strong man, he could drag him a mile if the situation demanded it. Three needed some help on the other hand.

"Four!" One yelled at him, and he turned his head. "Help Three! He's running out of ammo."

It was a bold strategy since it would leave his team vulnerable from the back. Hayter and the girl could decide to open fire from the stairs, but it was highly unlikely. One figured they were pretty far down the floors by now.

Four turned around immediately and joined sides with Three as he opened fire at the Leech Man. One kept dragging Two across the floor, but it was getting harder since Two was struggling with a few leeches that had stuck on him when he had been knocked down by the Leech Man's arm. They were trying to find a way through his tear proof clothes, but Two didn't give them any chance of finding their way to his flesh. He let go of his P90 sub-machinegun and grabbed his knife instead. Then he grabbed them one by one and cut them clean in half, calm and cold. Where any other person would have panicked and started flailing around, screaming for help, Two kept calm and handled the situation safely. Fear didn't exist in his mind. That was why One had picked him for his team back in the day.

Once he had killed the last of the leeches One helped him back up on his feet.

"Three, Four!" One yelled to his teammates and assumed firing position alongside Two. "We've got him, head for the stairs."

They stopped firing and turned around immediately, running alongside each of their walls to avoid getting in the line of fire. Once they got to the door they turned around and covered One and Two.

"Go!" Three yelled, signaling them to pull back.

One and Two ran towards them and went through the door. Two entered first and One went right after him, tapping Three's shoulder as he went by him. He then tapped Four's and they both came through the door.

The Leech Man was getting pretty close now. He was only 10 feet away, so One decided to do one last thing to slow him down. He stood in the door and then started aiming for the staggering legs of the Leech Man. It seemed the leeches were in lesser numbers down there, so he opened fire at his knees. Five or six shots did the trick and he fell to the ground.

But One wasn't finished. He pulled an incendiary grenade from his combat vest, threw it at him and slammed the door shut.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sean ran down the stairs, two steps at a time. Sabrina was right behind him, constantly keeping an eye on the floors above incase their pursuers were getting close.

He could hear them firing their weapons, rapidly. The loud bangs traveled unhindered down the stairs. The Leech Man was keeping them busy. Hopefully long enough for Sabrina and him to get out of the hospital.

The one Sean had labeled as the leader of the team, was yelling loudly between the gunfire, commanding his men around. He could tell that they were fighting it tactically, as expected of a bunch of professionals.

_Things can't possibly get any worse_, Sean thought. Zombies he could handle. Heck, even a handful of Leech Men was to prefer over being hunted by professional soldiers. At least they weren't smart enough to follow him all over town. They'd lose interest in him as soon as he'd break their line of sight. At least he and Sabrina had a fighting chance against the creatures.

But these Umbrella soldiers… they would stop at nothing. They were larger in numbers, better equipped and extremely well trained. He and Sabrina didn't stand a chance against them. All they could do was to run as fast as they could and hide.

Yet Sean stopped when he heard a terrifying sound from the floor they had just left. It was like nails on a blackboard, only much worse. He looked back at Sabrina who'd also frozen in her tracks.

"What the hell was that?" she said, her voice trembling.

Sean didn't answer; he just grabbed Sabrina's hand and continued to run down the stairs. He knew exactly what it had been and he suspected that she had an idea too. The soldiers were done and now they were coming after them.

The two got to the sub-ground floor where they had entered; the ambulance entrance. They rushed out the door and started up the slope, running straight for the road.

"Where the hell do we go, Sean?" Sabrina asked, gasping for air as she kept running.

Sean had no idea. He couldn't think right now, everything was happening too fast. All he knew was that they had to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible. The soldiers were going to be on their tail in a matter of seconds.

But then it struck him: how did they know that he and Sabrina were in the hospital in the first place? They must've seen them enter somehow. He hadn't seen or heard any helicopters or anything when they had walked back to the hospital. The only other way was…

"Wait! Stop!" Sean said and stopped, right before they got out under the night sky.

"What is it?" Sabrina said, stopping right behind him, but then she realized why he had stopped. She nodded up towards the sky. "They're watching us, right?"

Sean nodded, sighing. "Yeah… that's how they knew we were here in the first place."

"Oh, come on!" Sabrina exclaimed, angrily. "What the hell do we do then?"

Sean shook his head, throwing his arms up in the air. It all seemed too much; he couldn't deal with this anymore. He was tired, hungry and sore all over his body. He felt like giving up, just so he could finally get some rest.

He looked over at one of the ambulances. The rear doors were wide open, and he could see a comfy stretcher inside. _Man, I could so lie down right now…_

"Come on! I got an idea," he suddenly said and grabbed Sabrina's hand again.

"Wha-," Sabrina exclaimed, but Sean tucked her so hard that the air got knocked out of her. He pulled her towards the ambulance. "What the hell, Sean?"

He jumped inside it and started looking for a blanket. Sabrina kept standing outside, staring dubiously at him.

"Look, we can't leave without them knowing where we're going," Sean said as he pulled out a couple of blankets from a shelf. "If we hide in here it'll at least buy us some time before they realize we haven't left the hospital grounds."

"They'll see us!" Sabrina insisted.

"Maybe, but we have better odds staying here, than just running out into the open. Besides, they're not gonna expect us staying here. I'm sure of it," Sean told her. "Now, get inside and lie down on the stretcher before they show up!"

Sabrina obeyed and jumped inside, closing the doors behind her. Sean went first onto the stretcher and Sabrina lay down on top of him after she handed him the Beretta. They covered themselves the best they could with the blankets and stayed still. Now it would seem like there was just a dead body lying there. A huge dead body, sure, but if the soldiers didn't look closer they wouldn't notice anything was wrong.

They both listened closely, but they still couldn't hear anything. Sean carefully lifted the blanket a little and looked towards the driver's cabin. The side window had been rolled down, so they should be able to hear what was going on outside of the ambulance. Of course it also meant they had to be really silent so those outside didn't hear them either.

For a minute they were just lying there, looking each other in the eyes, trying their best to lie still. Sabrina had placed her arms down Sean's sides on the stretcher, so she wouldn't crush him completely. She wasn't a heavy girl, but she weighed a little more than most girls her size. It was mainly because of her muscles, since she liked to exercise. She wasn't buff, but tight as Pat would've put it.

Sabrina's chest was resting on Sean's and he could feel her heart beating heavily. It seemed to slow down gradually, and it was the same with her breath. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and took some more deep breaths. Sean did the same, trying to calm himself down a bit. If he could do that then maybe he could get a grip on his mind that was running loose. Right now his thoughts were a mess of despair and what-if's. Fear, stress and exhaustion clouded his mind, blocking his ability to think clearly and rationally. He had to calm down and figure out what they were going to do next.

Outside of the ambulance Sean could hear the doors to the stairway creaking as they slowly got pushed open. Both Sabrina and Sean opened their eyes wide open with a jolt, and he could feel her heart dancing in her chest. They held their breaths as they listened carefully.

It was difficult to hear, but Sean could just make out the sound of boots on concrete. The soldiers were moving slowly down the slope to the asphalted parking lot. He could tell they were spreading out, and one or maybe two of them came closer and closer to the ambulance.

Sabrina's heart was beating much faster now, and so did Sean's. They were fighting with their breathing, trying as hard as they could to keep it down, but it was nearly impossible. He just hoped to God that they wouldn't hear it. On top of that, Sabrina was getting tired in her arms so more and more of her weight got shifted down onto Sean's chest. It made it harder for him to breathe, but maybe that would stop him from hyperventilating.

Now the footsteps could be heard just outside the ambulance. They were slow and careful, but the sound seemed to be traveling around the car. The sound stopped when it reached the back of it, and Sean was afraid that they had looked inside and seen something suspicious.

Sean tightened his grip around the gun, ready to fire if the back doors got opened. Hopefully it didn't come to that, since him and Sabrina would be royally screwed if it did. They could get lucky and get one of them, but the other three would without a doubt be too much for them to handle. They would surely lose in a gunfight.

_Keep walking, keep walking,_ Sean prayed with his eyes closed.

As if he had heard his request, the soldier started to walk again, this time away from the ambulance it seemed. Sean heard someone yell "clear" from a distance away, then another "clear" and at last the man outside the ambulance yelled it as well.

Sean and Sabrina waited two, maybe three minutes while nothing happened and then decided that the soldiers had taken off. Sabrina let out a deep sigh and sunk down on top of Sean, resting her head on his chest. He noticed that she was trembling, so he wrapped his arms around her.

"Thank God," Sabrina said with a muffled voice, her face buried in Sean's t-shirt. "That was too close."

"Yeah," Sean sighed. "But we're safe now… at least for awhile, I think."

Sabrina looked up at him from underneath the blanket. "How much time do you think we have?"

"Not too long, I think," Sean said, thinking about it for awhile. "I guess we'll have about fifteen minutes or so before they suspect something, then they'll need to contact whoever's in charge of the satellite surveillance to figure out where we went. So, I don't know, maybe 20 minutes or so."

Sabrina nodded. "I saw that the key is still in the ignition. We could drive out of here… get some distance to these guys."

Sean lifted the blanket and looked towards the driver's seat. Just as Sabrina had said, the key was there, a little teddy bear hanging from the key ring.

"Wow," Sean said, surprised. "You noticed that when we got in here? I'm impressed."

"What can I say? I've got an eye for things," Sabrina said sarcastically and smiled.

"Yeah, that you do," Sean said and chuckled. "And the way you handled things upstairs… if you hadn't started shooting when you did, we wouldn't have gotten away. It was like you read my mind back there… how did you know?"

"I don't know… I guess we just think alike," Sabrina said, putting her head down on his chest again. "We make a great team, don't we?"

"Got that right," Sean said. "I probably wouldn't be alive if it wasn't because of you."

"Right back at you," Sabrina replied. "You've saved me countless times now… I'm sure Mike and Pat would say the same."

"We've all looked out for each other… As long as we stay together, we'll make it out of here. I'm sure of it," Sean said, staring blankly up at the ceiling of the ambulance.

"I hope they're alright, back at the radio station…" Sabrina said.

"I'm sure they're fine," Sean said, trying to comfort her. "There might be some serious assholes in charge there, but it's probably one of the safest places in the city right now."

xxxxxxxxxxx

He was gone.

His protector, his guardian angel, his only family, his brother was gone.

Mike sat in the bathroom surrounded by darkness. He hadn't cared to turn on the lights. He didn't care about anything right now. All he did was sit there against the wall, looking down at his blood soaked fingers. Even in this dark he could see the blood, like it was blacker than the darkness around him. It felt cold and sticky on his skin, like his brother had been bleeding oil in his last minutes.

_You always had been a grease monkey, Bro, _Mike thought, wanting to laugh at the irony, but couldn't; the grim reality hanging over him like a dark and heavy cloud, smothering him whenever he tried to move his thoughts to a better place.

But there was no better place… his thoughts just kept returning to his brother's last moments. Patrick hadn't died peacefully. He hadn't said anything to comfort his little brother, no last goodbye. He had died screaming in pain, crying his heart out in a river of his own blood and guts. It was awful. And Mike kept replaying it before his eyes again and again.

There had been nothing he could've done about it. That was the worst of it. No doctors or anyone with enough knowledge about first aid was present at the radio station. They had done the best they could with bandages and torn shirts to try and stop the bleeding, but the wound had been too big, too critical for them to handle. And even if they had managed to stop the bleeding temporarily, then they couldn't get him to a hospital. Pat had been doomed the second he had been stabbed by that "thing" that had come down at them from the ceiling.

Mike remembered it clearly. How his brother had come to his aid, throwing himself on top of the monster, beating, tearing and crushing it with all the strength he had. But as Pat had tackled it, it had jabbed its claws into his stomach, ripping his organs into pieces as a last desperate measure before Pat had cracked its neck.

His big brother had sacrificed his life for him, but Mike wished he hadn't. He wanted to trade places with him if he could. Pat deserved to life so much more than he did. He was a great and noble person, who had dedicated his entire life to protecting his little brother. Ever since their parents had died, Pat had taken care of him. He had worked hard to keep food on the table and roof over their heads, and he had made sure that Mike had gotten a good education. He had raised him, taught him how to live again. He had been like a father to him.

_It should've been me_, Mike kept thinking, his tears starting to fall on his hands, washing his brother's blood away.

Out in the hallway Mike could hear some of the other survivors talking. They were discussing the matter of his brother's dead body. Pat had bled out just about half an hour ago. His body was still lying on the table they had carried him onto after the attack. Nothing had been done about it. No one dared to do anything without talking to Mike about it first.

"We can't just leave him there!" a man stated.

"No, but we're not gonna move him or do anything before Mike has said it's alright," someone else said. Mike recognized him as Terry, the radio-dj.

"You know what's gonna happen if we don't do something soon!" the other guy said, raising his voice in frustration. "We're lucky it hasn't happened yet!"

"Look," Terry said, lowering his voice, though Mike could still hear it. "Give him a break, okay? He's just lost his brother. The last thing he needs is someone mutilating the body."

"Yeah, but-"

"I know. I'm gonna go talk to him now, alright?"

There was a few seconds of silence, and then Mike could hear footsteps coming towards the bathroom he was sitting in. The door slowly got pushed open and the light from the hallway found its way inside, and eventually to Mike who had to strain his eyes to see who was coming in. It was obviously Terry.

"Mike?" Terry asked out. "Is it okay that I come in and sit with you for awhile?"

Mike dried his eyes in his sleeves (higher up on them where they weren't soaked in his brother's blood). "Su-sure," he stuttered.

Terry went inside, closed the door, not completely, but just enough to let a little light in. He chose a spot at the opposite wall of where Mike was sitting and squatted down.

"How are you holding up?" Terry asked.

Mike scuffed and said: "How do you think? My brother just died on a fucking table, screaming in pain!"

Terry looked down, probably regretting ever asking such a stupid question.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Everything is just awesome!" Mike continued, but then realized what he was doing. It wasn't Terry's fault that Pat had died. He was just the first person to talk to Mike after what had happened, and so Mike had just let out all of his steam on him. He wasn't being fair to him at all, and he felt bad for snapping at his attempt at comforting him.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Terry," Mike apologized. "It's just…"

"I know… I don't blame you. I'm the one who's sorry for not being more sensitive," Terry said and took off his glasses. "It was a stupid question."

Mike looked down at his hands again. "He was my only family, you know… He's always been there for me, always looking out for me."

Mike curled his hands into fists, tightening his jaw, trying not to start crying again.

"And now… he's dead, Terry," he said as a tear inevitably rolled down his cheek. "Who's gonna look out for me now? Who's gonna protect me?"

Terry didn't say anything, but Mike didn't expect him to come up with a smart answer. He wasn't asking Terry as much as he was asking himself.

Pat had been the light shining in the dark ever since their parents died. He had shown Mike the way, had kept him from drowning in the darkness of depression. But now that light had been turned off, and yet again Mike was standing in the dark, with no way of telling where to go.

"I'm lost without him," he whispered.

In the opposite side of the bathroom, Terry put on his glasses again and looked straight at Mike.

"Patrick saved you, Mike. He gave his life for you, so that you could keep on living."

Mike looked up at Terry in surprise, his heart jumping in his chest.

"So you can't give up… for his sake, you gotta keep moving. That's what he would've wanted."

Mike started sobbing. Terry was right, and he knew it. He couldn't just let the darkness consume him. He had to be his own light in the dark; that was what Pat would've wanted for him. He had to look after himself now.

Terry got up and walked over to him, offering him his hand. "You have to move on, Mike, and for you to do that, you know what you gotta do."

Mike glanced at his hand for a long time, but then he grabbed it and Terry helped him to his feet. It wasn't until now Mike noticed that Terry had a gun in his other hand. It was his brother's .357 revolver; the one Mike had been borrowing over the last couple of days.

He wiped his eyes again, this time for good. No more tears.

"Yes, I know," Mike said and Terry handed him the gun.


End file.
